


When It's Right

by rsadelle



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 11:14:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2148636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsadelle/pseuds/rsadelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kelsey wasn't looking to date, so when the guy in the bar told her he wouldn't call her later, it seemed like a good chance to hook up without having to get entangled any further. It was only ever supposed to be a one-night stand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When It's Right

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to everyone who answered my miscellaneous and varied questions on Twitter, with special thanks to jrho who threw out the title suggestion I ended up using. Everything I know about Glens Falls I learned from the internet; details may be wrong. This roughly follows last season's schedule, but goes slightly AU at the end because reality did not match up to what I'd already written.

Kelsey flashed a smile at the guy who held the door for them - just because she wasn't looking for someone didn't mean she couldn't flirt, and the guy might buy them a drink later - and followed Courtney into the bar. There was a solid crowd, but not so many people that they couldn't get to the bar. They ended up next to a couple of guys, because Courtney knew what she was doing, and the guys looked them over before they could catch the attention of the bartender.

Kelsey was more subtle about it, but she did her own looking over of the guys. The shorter one, only by a couple of inches, had curly hair and a wide smile. The taller one was also better looking, kind of a pointed jaw, but an overall nice face with stubble and thick-rimmed hipster glasses that were really working for him. His smile was a little cooler, but Kelsey was just window shopping, so it didn't take away from how nice he was to look at.

The guy with the smile caught the bartender's attention for them, and after Kelsey and Courtney gave him their orders, he said, "Let me get that for you, ladies," and handed over his credit card.

"Thank you," Courtney said brightly.

Kelsey nodded at the guy and let Courtney take the lead.

"You're very welcome," smiling guy said. "I'm Jason, my buddy here is Tyler."

"Courtney and Kelsey."

Kelsey smiled lightly at Jason and Tyler, while Courtney gave them her best high-wattage smile.

"What are you ladies up to this evening?" Jason asked.

"Oh, just looking to have a good time," Courtney said. "Maybe meet some new people."

Jason smiled down at her. "Us too." And that was it, that was their evening right there because Courtney wasn't looking anywhere but at Jason, and that meant it was going to be Kelsey's job to keep Tyler entertained.

"I think there's a table opening up," Tyler said, and he sort of herded them all in the direction of a table where people were standing up to leave.

Jason held out a chair for Courtney, and Tyler held one for Kelsey, in a way that put the two of them across from each other, Courtney close to Jason and Kelsey close to Tyler. Courtney immediately turned her charm on Jason, and after a moment, Kelsey smiled at Tyler, trying not to make it obvious that she was a little reluctant about it.

"So," Tyler said, and he sounded even more awkward than Kelsey felt, "are you from here?"

"Pretty much," Kelsey said. "Saratoga Springs, but came up here for school."

"What are you studying?" And if Tyler didn't look like he cared all that much, at least he wasn't just blowing it off, and it wasn't like she was going to get any help in this conversation from Courtney.

"Business administration. Plattsburgh has a program on the Adirondack campus."

"That's cool," Tyler said, and that was better than what a lot of guys had said about her choice of major. "You like it?"

"Yes," Kelsey said, cautious at first, because what the fuck did this guy need to know about her? But then, what did it matter if she told him the truth? "I do. I wasn't sure I was going to, when I started, but I'm good at it, and I like knowing how businesses work, or how they're supposed to work, anyway."

"Huh," Tyler said. "You gonna take over the business world or something?"

"Probably not," Kelsey admitted, the reminder that she didn't know what she was going to do after graduation bringing her back down to earth. She plastered on a smile. "What about you? You don't sound like you're from around here."

"No," Tyler said. "Canada, up north of Toronto. We play hockey, for the Phantoms."

Kelsey had heard of the Phantoms, but didn't know anything about them, or hockey. "That's cool," she said. "You like doing that?"

"Yeah." Tyler didn't exactly light up, but he looked happier with that question than he had with anything since they'd met. "All I ever wanted to do was play hockey, so, yeah."

If she were into him, Kelsey could have come up with a lot of questions about that - it was one of the things you learned to do if you were serious about dating, or about business, and it was the kind of conversation Mary Ann, her boss, encouraged her to have with customers - but she didn't really feel like making the effort.

There was an awkward silence for a moment while she didn't ask. Across the table, Courtney was leaning in toward Jason, looking up at him from under her eyelashes while he looked at her with absolute focus.

Kelsey heaved a sigh - wholly internal - and smiled at Tyler. "So you've been playing a long time?"

And then she just had to listen while he opened up about how he'd been playing since he was a kid and how he loved it and how hard he'd worked to get where he was now. Kelsey made encouraging noises and asked the right kinds of questions, and mostly just let him talk. It wasn't boring, exactly, even if she wasn't particularly excited about the intricacies of life as a hockey player, but she could tell he loved it, and that gave it some life.

There was a pause again, and this time Tyler looked a little sheepish.

"I didn't mean to talk your ear off."

Kelsey smiled at him. It was cute, as much as she wasn't really looking for that. "It's cool. You sound like you enjoy it."

"Yeah," Tyler said, and then he glanced across the table where Jason and Courtney had moved closer together and weren't paying any attention to them. "Look, you seem nice and all, and I don't want to be that asshole who doesn't call you, so I'm just telling you, I'm not going to call you."

"No?" Kelsey asked, buying herself a few seconds to figure out what the hell was going on with this guy.

"No," Tyler said. "Sorry, but I'm not looking to date right now. I just came along to help Jason."

Well, that changed things. Kelsey sat back in her chair and looked Tyler over. He really was very good looking. Blue eyes. Arms to die for. Athlete, so probably plenty of stamina. She leaned forward, not quite into Tyler's space, but getting there. "Okay," she said. "So, do you want to get out of here?"

"I, uh, really?"

"I don't want you to call me either," Kelsey said. "But if you want to hook up, you can come back to my place."

Tyler blinked at her, glanced over at Courtney and Jason. "Yeah," he said, "sure."

Kelsey smiled at him, more real than any of her other smiles for him had been, then leaned across the table to touch Courtney's arm. "Hey, Tyler's going to take me home if you're good here."

Courtney's eyebrows arched, and Kelsey looked straight at her to answer that yes, even though she'd come out without intending to meet anyone, she really was going to go hook up with Tyler.

"Yes," Courtney said. "I'm good." She turned her smile on Jason. "Jason can make sure I get home okay."

Kelsey squeezed Courtney's arm. "All right. See you later." She let go and stood up, Tyler following just a half a beat behind her. He caught up fast enough, and put his hand at the small of her back to guide her out of the bar. It was the first time he'd touched her. His hand was warm even over her shirt, and big, spreading out across her lower back. Kelsey took in a surprised breath at how good the touch felt, the way it sent electrified tingling all through her body. She kept walking, not letting it show on the outside.

"We took a cab," she said to Tyler when they emerged from the bar into the cool night air.

"I drove." Tyler held up a pair of keys. "My truck is this way." He guided her along with that same hand at the small of her back. The warmth was even more pronounced in the cool air outside.

Tyler clicked his remote and the truck whose lights blinked was so large that Kelsey was glad for the hand up into it that Tyler offered. He closed the door behind her, and she took the moment while he was walking around the truck to make sure she really wanted to do this. It wasn't too late to back out now. But then he opened the driver's side door and the light fell onto his face, and she really wanted him in her bed.

He put the key in the ignition, but instead of starting the truck, he leaned across the seat, one of those large hands curving around the back of her head and drawing her in for a kiss.

The touch of his lips on hers was like an electric shock, jump-starting the low buzz of her attraction to him into full-blown, had-to-have-him-now want.

Tyler pulled back from it. The light in the truck hadn't gone out yet, and they stared into each other's eyes for a long, long moment. Up close, his eyes were very, very blue.

Then Tyler sucked in a breath, let go of her, and settled into his seat, reaching back for the seat belt. "Where do you live?"

Kelsey told him the general area, and then gave him more specific directions as they got closer. They didn't speak otherwise.

Kelsey unlocked the door to the building, and Tyler held it open for her to go through first. She and Courtney were only on the third floor, so she took the stairs. It was kind of hell on her feet in the heels she was wearing, but she could practically feel Tyler watching her ass all the way up.

Kelsey unlocked the apartment door and pushed it open. And then Tyler, a total stranger, was following her into her apartment and closing the door behind them. Kelsey turned to look at him, and he looked so good in the dim light from the lamp Courtney had left on in the living room that she stopped thinking about the fact that she didn't know him.

Tyler bent down to take off his shoes without Kelsey even having to ask him to. Her shoes were easy enough to take off; she lifted one foot, and then the other, to undo the buckles one-handed, and let them drop to the floor.

Tyler blinked and looked down at her when he stood up. Really down at her. He seemed a lot taller when she was barefoot. He seemed to agree with that, because he asked, "What are you, like, five-five?"

"Five-four," Kelsey admitted. "The shoes are tall." She grabbed his hand to distract him from commenting on her height. "My room is this way."

His hand dwarfed hers, and it was warm where his fingers entwined with hers. He followed her down the short hallway to her bedroom, and he was the one to turn half away from her to push the door closed.

Kelsey took that moment to glance around her room. She hadn't expected or planned to have anyone else in it. It wasn't too much of a mess, though, and nothing that was lying around was particularly embarrassing. She had just enough time to take in the state of her room before Tyler turned toward her again, and then the hand that wasn't holding hers cupped the back of her neck and he bent down to kiss her.

It was all heat and want, and Kelsey could feel it right down in the pit of her stomach. She put her free hand on the back of Tyler's head to make sure he wouldn't stop.

He didn't, kept kissing her and kissing her and kissing her. He let go of her hand in there somewhere to put his arm around her instead, and she brought her arm up to wrap around his shoulders.

Everything in her was melting, right down to the core. She'd never gotten this turned on this fast before. She could feel herself getting wet, and she pressed forward against Tyler, against where he was getting hard.

Kelsey moved when Tyler skimmed her shirt off, lifting her arms to make it easier, watching his eyes drop down to her breasts.

"Hey," she said after a moment, hands at his waist to get his attention. "You too."

He stripped off his shirt in one quick movement, and then she was looking at his chest. He was built, defined muscle all the way down to his abs. Kelsey put her hands on his shoulders and ran them all the way down to the waistband of his jeans, feeling heat and solid muscle and smooth skin.

She looked up at Tyler and exhaled in a whoosh, suddenly breathless at the look in his eyes. She didn't move, stood where she was, trembling a little, as his hands skimmed up from her waist to the middle of her back. He unhooked her bra and drew it down her arms, dropped it to the side with the rest of their clothes.

Kelsey couldn't stand to not be touching him then, and she surged forward, going up on her toes to kiss him. His skin felt so good against hers, and he was so warm, the heat seeping into her and making her want to get even closer to him.

Tyler took over control of the kiss, which meant she was free to take her hands off of him so she could unzip her skirt and push it down her hips.

Tyler didn't stop kissing her while he unzipped his jeans and pushed them down. They took a step to the side, both of them stepping out of their clothes, and then there was only the slightest barrier between them.

Kelsey kept touching Tyler, running her hands down the solid muscle of his back, grabbing at his arms, anything to keep feeling him, exploring his skin. He wasn't shy about touching her either. He skimmed his hands up and down her sides, a touch that wasn't any less arousing for how light it was. He paused at her breasts, but didn't move his hands between their bodies to touch more of them. His hands went all the way down to her hips, brushing over her panties and down to her thighs.

Kelsey stopped kissing him then, letting out a gasp and leaning her forehead into his chest. It didn't do much to help her catch her breath, the scent of his cologne and his skin in her nose, so much more surrounded by him like this.

She needed him closer, needed more than just the touches he was already bestowing on her. She put her hands on his ass, then paused to feel just how muscled that was too before she drew him forward, spreading her legs just a little to get some friction from his body between them.

Tyler's hands moved up from her thighs, drawing her closer the same way she was drawing him closer, and then they were on her ass and he was lifting, and Kelsey let out a surprised gasp as he picked her all the way up. She moved her arms up around his shoulders, grabbing at him so she wouldn't fall, and brought her legs up around his hips.

It was only a few steps to the bed, and Tyler set her down on it. It took a moment for Kelsey to make her hands release their grip on his shoulders. Tyler's hands drew over her ass and thighs before falling away from her body.

Kelsey squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, and opened them when Tyler's fingers curled around the waistband of her panties. He was waiting, looking up at her, and didn't pull them down until she nodded at him. They went on the floor with the rest of their clothes, and then he took off his boxer briefs, and her eyes caught on his cock. She wanted it in her.

Tyler turned toward their pile of clothes. Kelsey squirmed sideways and opened her nightstand drawer.

"Here," she said, holding out a condom.

Tyler took it from her, his fingers sure and steady as he tore it open and rolled it on. He reached for her then, running his hands up the insides of her thighs.

Kelsey spread her legs, making space for him. "I'm good," she said when he kept touching her. "Just." She opened herself up to him a little more. Everything in her was soft and wet and ready for him.

Tyler entered her slowly. It had been a while, and it was a lot to take all at once, his cock stretching her wide around it and filling her up. He was watching her face, so she focused on the part where it was good, where she wanted to be filled so full with him.

When he was all the way in her, he bent his head down and kissed her, and that reignited all the desire in her. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down, wanting the heat of his body all over her.

Tyler held himself off of her, just enough that his weight wasn't crushing her, close enough that she could feel him everywhere, in her, around her, touching her.

Then he started to move, and she lost her breath, caught it again in a sharp inhale, and arched into his thrusts. He knew what he was doing, moving smoothly against her. He was looking at her, too, and one of his hands cupped her breast. He thumbed over her nipple and did it again when it made her gasp.

Kelsey stopped thinking. She stopped thinking about the last time she'd done this, about the reasons she hadn't wanted to meet anyone, about how weird it was that she was in bed with a total stranger. She let herself fall into it and just feel, the way Tyler was touching her, the way their mouths met and parted as they fell in and out of kisses, the way his hips felt against hers.

It was so good, heat building in her with every thrust, with every touch of Tyler's skin against hers, with every kiss. She was getting close, and then closer and closer. And then Tyler stopped kissing her, thrust jerkily into her, and shuddered against her with a groan.

He pulled out of her after a moment, took care of the condom, and then looked down at her. "You didn't come."

"No," Kelsey said. No reason to lie to him; she didn't need to feed his ego, and she would probably never see him again. "Whatever. It's fine."

Tyler actually rolled his eyes at her, which was pretty presumptuous for someone she'd known for less than three hours. "I can do better than that."

"You don't have to," Kelsey tried to tell him, but he leaned down and kissed her, and put his hand between her legs. His fingers felt even bigger against the center of her. Not as big as his cock when he pushed two of them into her, but big.

He stroked her hair back, kissed her again, and then started moving his fingers. It was going to take longer to get her back to where she was so close. He just kept kissing her, then moved down to nuzzle at her neck.

Kelsey tilted her head, letting him get at the most sensitive spots on her neck. When he found one that made her gasp, he kissed her there, and then nipped lightly at her skin. That was working to get her closer again. And then Tyler's other hand, the one that wasn't between her thighs, started moving over her body. There didn't seem to be any sort of pattern to how he was touching her. He was just touching her, shoulder, breast, arm, hip, across her stomach. Every pass of his hand sent sparks through her, centering at her core, where his other hand was working to make her come.

There wasn't any one thing that got her there. It was just a slow build of sensation, his hands on her body, his mouth drifting over her neck and back up to her lips, until it got her there, until it was crashing over her like a wave and she was coming with a gasp.

Tyler kept moving his hand, sending aftershocks of sensation through her until she pushed his hand away.

Tyler smiled and bent down to kiss her. "I told you I could do better."

Kelsey felt too good to be bothered by the hint of smugness in his tone. She just pulled him in for another kiss. "Yeah," she said afterwards. "That was pretty good."

He looked smug for another second or two before he was just smiling at her. It was a good look on him. It was good enough for Kelsey to kiss him again.

Tyler pulled away before it could turn into anything more than just one kiss. "I should go," he said.

Kelsey nodded and sat up to watch him walk to the bathroom to wash his hands and then come back to fish his clothes out of the pile on the floor. She wasn't going to put her clothes back on, but she got out of bed when he was pulling his shirt over his head. She pulled her bathrobe off its hook on her closet door and shrugged into it. She tied it loosely; he'd already seen all of her, and she was planning on going back to bed once he was gone.

Kelsey followed Tyler to the door, and waited for him to put his shoes on. They looked at each other for a long moment before Tyler spoke.

"Uh, thanks," he said.

It was kind of awkward, but Kelsey smiled at him and said, "Yeah, you too."

Tyler looked at her for a moment longer, and then he bent down and kissed her, one of those large hands at the small of her back, feeling even warmer through the silky fabric of her robe. It was a good kiss, and at the end of it, Kelsey had one arm hooked around Tyler's neck.

She let him go when he stepped back, sliding her arm away with more reluctance than she would have guessed.

Tyler smiled at her, just barely, and walked out without saying anything else. Kelsey locked the door behind him and went to bed.

*

Kelsey was awake, dressed in yoga pants and a t-shirt, hair pulled out of her way into a loose ponytail, eating cereal and watching TV on the couch when Courtney came out of her room in the morning. Courtney was in just her pajamas, and she wandered past Kelsey to the kitchen.

"I didn't hear you come in last night," Kelsey said.

"We went to another bar," Courtney said. "And then we went and had coffee." There were the sounds of cereal and milk being poured into a bowl, and then Courtney came into the living room with her breakfast. "Unlike you. Did you really hook up with Tyler?"

"Yep." Kelsey took another bite of cereal.

"You never do that," Courtney said.

Kelsey shrugged. "He was hot, and he said he wasn't going to call me."

Courtney stared at her. "He actually said that?"

"Yeah." Kelsey let out a soft laugh. "That's what made me hook up with him. I don't want him to call me."

Courtney ate a few bites of cereal before she asked, "Because of David, or because it was bad?"

Kelsey put her empty bowl down on the coffee table. "It was good, but I'm not ready to date again." She didn't touch the rest of that thing about David. She was trying to put him behind her, and she didn't need to talk about him.

Courtney raised her eyebrows. "But you're ready to hook up with total strangers?"

"Apparently." Kelsey turned all of her attention away from where _Love It Or List It_ had cut to commercial anyway. "He seemed nice enough, and he was pretty hot. And he wanted me, so that part was nice."

Courtney winced. "But you're not going to try to see him again?"

"No way," Kelsey said. "It was good, but I'm not dating." She nudged Courtney with her toes. "How about Jason?"

Courtney accepted the change of subject with a ridiculous smile. "Definitely seeing him again."

"Yeah?"

"Oh, yeah. He was very nice, and we totally clicked. I mean, we didn't hook up, but there was definitely a connection."

"Did you at least kiss him?"

A dreamy look settled over Courtney's face. "Yeah, and got his number. He already texted me this morning."

"That's great, Court." Kelsey picked up her bowl from the table and squeezed Courtney's shoulder as she went to the kitchen. It did mean she was probably going to run into Tyler at some point or another, but she could deal with it, and she was happy for Courtney.

*

Courtney and Jason's connection really was a thing. They went out at least once a week and Jason came over to their place a couple of times. Courtney didn't come home one night, and came back in the morning wearing her clothes from the night before and a bright smile.

For all that Courtney and Jason were constantly together, it was a couple of weeks before Kelsey ran into Tyler again. She'd gone to dinner with Courtney and Jason - Courtney promised she wouldn't be in the way and that they really did want to hang out with her - and then they went to a bar for drinks, and that was where there were a handful of guys Jason knew, including Tyler.

A couple of the guys had girlfriends or wives with them, but the rest of them were single. Kelsey was friendly, but careful not to send out any other signals. She still didn't want to date, and none of them were hot enough that she wanted to just hook up with them. She ended up talking mostly with some of the other women.

She was on the way back from the bathroom with one of them when the other woman changed direction toward two guys standing together at one end of the bar. One of them was the other woman's boyfriend. The other one was Tyler, which Kelsey didn't realize until she was so close it would have looked weird if she'd turned around to go back to the rest of the group.

She smiled at him anyway, and he half-smiled at her while the other woman cuddled up to her boyfriend. The boyfriend was saying something lightly teasing to the other woman that Kelsey didn't pay any attention to. Tyler was just as good-looking as she'd remembered. He wasn't wearing glasses this time, but he still had the stubble and the face.

"Having a good time?" he asked when it was clear the other two weren't going to pay any attention to them.

"Yeah," Kelsey said, "sure."

Tyler raised his eyebrows. "You don't sound sure about it."

Kelsey shrugged. "It's not all bad. It's just a lot of couples and people who are looking to meet someone."

"And you're still not," Tyler says.

"Nope." Kelsey didn't owe him any more of an explanation than that, and she waited Tyler out while he looked at her.

"Okay," he finally said. He looked at her, around at the bar, and then at her again. "You want to get out of here?"

Then it was her turn to look at him for a long moment. He still looked good. If she wasn't dating, she wasn't going to have sex for a while. She already knew he was good in bed. They could hook up again without her having to do anything else with him.

"Okay," Kelsey said. "Let me just tell Courtney I'm leaving."

Tyler followed her over to where Courtney and Jason were talking with a group of other people. Courtney turned away from the group when Kelsey touched her arm to get her attention.

"Tyler's going to give me a ride home."

Courtney's eyebrows went up, but she just said, "All right. I'm probably going to stay at Jason's, so I'll see you tomorrow."

Kelsey nodded, and they exchanged a quick hug.

Tyler put his hand at the small of Kelsey's back on the way out, the same way he had the last time. It sent an electric buzz of heat through her, the same way it had last time.

He kept his hand there, using it to guide her out of the bar, through the parking lot, and to his truck. He opened the door for her and helped her up into the truck, then closed the door and went around to the driver's side.

He didn't kiss her before he started the truck, and they didn't talk on the way to her place.

Kelsey got out of the truck unassisted when they parked in the lot outside her building, but Tyler met her when she came around the truck and put his hand on her back. He kept it there until they were in the apartment and they separated to take off their shoes.

Kelsey had almost forgotten just how tall he was, but she was reminded when they were standing together barefoot. She had to look so far up to meet his eyes. He was looking at her with an intensity that made her shiver.

He moved slowly enough that she could measure his intent as he bent down to kiss her. It started out light, but he deepened it when she wrapped her arms around him. He slipped one thigh between hers, his hand coming down onto her ass to hold her there, pull her in closer.

It was like last time, with the heat rising fast and sudden in her. She ground herself shamelessly against his thigh while he kept kissing her.

Kelsey eventually broke away to gasp for breath and to tug at Tyler's arm. "Bedroom. Come on." Courtney had said she would probably stay at Jason's, but Kelsey didn't want to chance any interruption if she and Tyler fucked in the entryway.

Tyler looked like he was thinking about carrying her to the bedroom, and while that could be hot in theory, Kelsey wasn't quite ready to try it in practice. She pulled away from him, then pulled her shirt over her head as she walked down the hall.

Tyler followed close behind her, close enough that she could feel his heat as well as hear his footsteps.

Kelsey dropped her shirt onto the floor in her bedroom, and shimmied out of her skirt. She turned around then, in just her underwear, and Tyler was looking at her, his eyes roaming over her body and then up to her face.

Kelsey met his eyes and looked right at him as she unhooked her bra, slid the straps down her arms. His eyes didn't flicker down to her breasts until she let the bra fall to the floor. He seemed to get stuck there, and while it was hot, she wanted more than just him looking at her, so she hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her panties and pushed them down too.

Tyler's eyes dipped lower, and lower, and then he looked up at her face, and she was caught again by how blue his eyes were.

They stood there, just looking into each other's eyes for what seemed like a long, long time before Tyler looked away. He stripped quickly, dropping his clothes onto the floor one piece at a time until he was naked, his chest and arms on display, his cock hard and curving up toward his abs.

Kelsey let herself look at him, the way he'd looked at her, and he just stood there and let her do it. She was already wet, but she was getting wetter, and the anticipation made her breath come faster.

Tyler was the one to step forward, all that skin and the full, solid bulk of him coming toward her, and then pressing against her. He tipped her chin up and kissed her. His tongue delved deep into her mouth, and she pressed forward against him, wanting to feel his skin against hers.

He put his arms around her as they kissed. They held her tightly enough without being constricting. Kelsey leaned into it, feeling, despite herself, cared for as well as held.

Tyler didn't pick her up like he had the last time. Instead he used his body and his arms to guide her backwards, moving them together in tiny steps until they got to the bed.

They stood next to the bed still kissing for long minutes. Their kisses were deep, soft, slow, and good enough to warm Kelsey all the way through. She was the one to move, finally, pulling out of a kiss, and tugging back against Tyler's arms. He let her go easily, and she sat down on the bed, then hitched herself backwards until she was all the way on it and there was room for him too.

Tyler looked down on her, the obvious appreciation on his face and the hard curve of his cock making her breath come faster. He put his knees on the bed first, and walked his way up to cover her. He kept his full weight off of her, but let her take enough of it that she knew he was there.

He put his hand between her legs, and Kelsey gasped and arched up into the touch. She was already wet and turned on, but that was doing more, that was his fingers rubbing against her and starting to push her toward coming.

Tyler looked at her while he touched her, their eyes meeting again in one of those long moments before he bent his head and kissed her. Kelsey let out a noise, a gasped, "Oh," and hooked her arm around his shoulders to keep him there, make sure he didn't stop kissing her.

They kissed for a long time, his hand against her bringing her closer and closer to coming.

She was so close when Tyler pulled away.

He sat back a little, smiled down at her before he opened the drawer to her nightstand and took out a condom. There was a longer pause while he put the condom on, Kelsey's eyes catching on the movement of his hands - one of them still wet with her - over his cock.

Tyler pushed into her, warm and hard and perfect, filling her up just right, the only thing that had been missing while he was touching her. And then he was touching her too, one hand between them rubbing against her while he rocked in and out of her.

Kelsey gasped, and Tyler smiled at her, a pleased, wide smile she hadn't seen from him before. "That's it," he murmured, and then he kissed her and she clung to him as they moved together.

It was too good to last, that perfect touch mixing with that feeling of him in her and his kiss, and she could feel her orgasm building and building and building. It swept over her in a rush that had her moaning as she grabbed at everything of him she could reach.

"Yeah," Tyler said, "Kelsey," and then he was thrusting hard into her and throwing his head back as he came. He thrust into her a few more times, riding it out, and then he pulled away and took care of the condom.

He settled in on his side next to her after, and kissed her gently while he put his hand between her legs. "Can you go again?"

"Probably not," she admitted. She put her hand on his arm to keep him there. "Don't stop. It feels good."

He kept touching her while they made out, slow and languorous now that they'd both come and were just floating in the afterglow.

Kelsey sighed into his mouth eventually, and gently pulled his hand away from her. He put it on her hip instead and kissed her again, firmer that time.

"Good?" he asked.

Kelsey smiled at him, sleepy and sated and willing to just fall into sleep right then and there. "Yes."

Tyler smiled back at her, pressed a kiss to her lips, and pulled away. "I can let myself out."

A weird sort of disappointment settled into Kelsey's stomach. She pushed it away and forced herself to get out of bed while Tyler washed his hands in the bathroom. "I'll walk you out."

"You don't have to," Tyler said as he picked up his clothes from the floor.

Kelsey didn't bother answering that and got her robe off of its hook. Even that seemed like a lot of effort. She wrapped it around her and tied the sash just tightly enough to keep it mostly closed.

Tyler was dressed by then, and Kelsey followed him to the entryway, waited for him to put on his shoes.

He smiled softly at her, and bent down, one large hand on her shoulder, to kiss her. "Go to bed," he said.

"As soon as you leave," Kelsey said.

The corners of his eyes crinkled with his smile, and he rubbed his thumb up across her shoulder as he kissed her again.

He was still smiling that same little half smile when he left. Kelsey locked the door behind him, turned off the lights, and took the memory of that smile to bed with her.

*

Kelsey had class in the morning, early enough that she didn't see Courtney before she left, and she was scheduled to work in the afternoon. It was quiet in Mary Ann's shop, letting Kelsey get some of her reading done. That meant she didn't have a great excuse to escape Courtney's questioning when she did get home.

"Okay," Courtney said when Kelsey came into the apartment, "spill."

Kelsey groaned. "Can we at least go to the gym? I need to work out."

"Didn't get enough of a workout last night?" Courtney asked with a smirk.

"Gym," Kelsey called as she went down the hall to her bedroom. She changed into her gym clothes, grabbed her phone and her keys, and met Courtney by the door.

Courtney let her be on the drive to the gym, but once they were side by side on treadmills, she said, "Tell me about last night."

"What about it?"

"You hooked up with him again," Courtney said.

"Yeah, but it's probably not going to happen again," Kelsey said, trying not to think about why the thought of that made her feel just the tiniest bit sad.

"Mmhmm," Courtney said. "And it wasn't going to happen again after the last time."

"I never said that." Kelsey upped the level on her treadmill, hoping if she got closer to being out of breath Courtney would let it drop.

Courtney just upped levels on her treadmill to match. "Then it might happen again. You like him."

"I like how good he is in bed," Kelsey said, resolutely not thinking about the way Tyler had smiled at her before he left or how blue his eyes were. She also ignored the double take from the guy on the treadmill on the other side of her.

Courtney just grinned at her. "That's a good start to a relationship."

"Not a relationship," Kelsey said, and then she pushed the level of her treadmill up enough that she really was too breathless to talk.

*

There was an air of inevitability to it when Kelsey ran into Tyler again a week later. It was a Tuesday night and she wasn't even with Courtney and Jason. Mary Ann usually closed, but she'd had an early family thing, so Kelsey worked late. Courtney had texted to say she was going to dinner with Jason, and Kelsey wasn't in the mood to cook. There was someone else reaching the door to East End Eatery just as Kelsey was, and she wasn't all that surprised to look up at him and see that it was Tyler.

Tyler looked startled for a second, but then he said, "Hi," and held the door for her.

Kelsey smiled at him briefly and went into the restaurant. "Thanks."

Tyler followed her in, and stopped next to her behind the people already ordering at the counter. "Are you meeting someone here?" he asked after a minute.

"No." Kelsey didn't look away from the menu, still deciding if she was going to have a calzone or not.

There was another pause, long enough to make her glance over at Tyler.

He shrugged under her look. "Do you want to eat together?" He held up his hands. "Not like a date or anything, but I know Courtney was going to Jason's tonight, so if you wanted some company."

Kelsey considered her options. She could turn him down and go home and have a quiet evening. On the other hand, a day full of class and work meant she hadn't had much social interaction with anyone that was purely social.

"Yeah, okay," she said. "But I'm buying my own dinner."

"Fine with me," Tyler said. He gestured at the case of drinks. "You want anything?"

"Lemon iced tea."

Tyler grabbed that and a bottle of Gatorade out of the case. He gave her the tea and held onto the Gatorade, then gestured her up to the counter first when the people in front them took their number and walked away.

"Calzone with pepperoni," Kelsey said when the guy behind the counter asked for her order, "and the tea." She handed over her card to pay for it, took the receipt and the number for her order, and stepped out of the way so Tyler could order.

"Hey, man." The guy behind the counter was even friendlier to Tyler than he had been to her. "You want the usual?"

"Yep, thanks," Tyler said.

It apparently was the usual, enough that he didn't have to say anything else as they guy behind the counter keyed his order in.

"Spaghetti parm with chicken, Italian dressing on the salad, side of grilled veggies, and a Gatorade," the guy read back. He didn't pause to wait for Tyler's agreement, just took the card Tyler was holding out to him and swiped it. "You playing tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Tyler said. "Should be a good game."

"Awesome," the guy said. He handed back Tyler's card and the slip to be signed. "I switched shifts so I could go."

"Nice," Tyler said. "We'll make it a good one for you."

"You always do." The guy took Tyler's signed slip and gave him a number. "Have a good night."

"Thanks, man." Tyler took the number and turned toward Kelsey. "Where do you want to sit?"

Kelsey shrugged and picked one of the empty tables. "I didn't know I was agreeing to have dinner with a celebrity," she said when they were sitting.

Tyler hunched his shoulders over in a shrug. "Not really. It's just some places around here that people know me. I know some guys in the NHL. They're the real celebrities." His mouth twisted into something of a smirk. "But I do have over six thousand Twitter followers."

Kelsey paused in the act of taking the cap off of her iced tea. She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to figure out if he was messing with her. "Really?"

"Really." Tyler pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I can show you."

"No," Kelsey said with half a laugh. "I'll believe you." She sipped at her iced tea. "You have a game tomorrow?"

"Yeah, should be a good one," Tyler said. "How's school?"

"You know, school, but we're past midterms so it's not too bad until finals."

"Yeah, cool," Tyler said, and then there was an awkward pause because they didn't have that much in common or know each other that well. "Jason and Courtney," he said after a minute, "you think that's going to last?"

Kelsey made a face. "I'm not a good person to ask. I'm pretty cynical about relationships right now." She shrugged. "But Courtney really likes him, so maybe."

"He likes her too," Tyler said. "They seem like they're having fun together."

Kelsey smiled, thinking about how cheerful Courtney had been since she met Jason. "They're definitely doing that."

Talking about Jason and Courtney seemed to have broken the seal of awkwardness around their conversation, and it was easier to talk after that. Kelsey told Tyler a little bit about the shop and Mary Ann, and he caught her up on what was going on with his hockey team and showed her pictures of his dog back home.

Their conversation paused for a moment when their food came, and picked up again after, slowed down a little while Kelsey ate most of her calzone and Tyler ate what looked, once it was on their small table, like half the menu.

It was actually kind of nice. Not dating meant Kelsey hadn't been meeting anyone new, and it was nice to be able to just talk about the small things in her life without having to go any deeper. Tyler was good at asking interested questions and keeping up his end of the conversation, and he turned out to have a sense of humor that made her laugh more than once. Plus he was very nice to look at.

They were there longer than Kelsey had planned to spend on dinner, but it wasn't too late when they left the restaurant.

"So that was pretty fun," Tyler said when they were outside on the sidewalk looking at each other. He laughed at whatever expression was on her face. "Don't worry. I'm not asking you to do it again, but thanks for this time."

"Yeah," Kelsey said, "it was fun." There was another moment where they just looked at each other. Even in the dark of the evening there was enough light spilling out of the restaurant for her to see that startling blue of his eyes and the way his stubble perfectly fit his face. "Do you want to come home with me?"

She'd startled him; it took a second before he said, "Really?"

Kelsey shrugged. "Courtney's at Jason's, so, if you want to."

"Yeah, okay." Tyler's lips quirked into a smile. "I'm not going to say no to that."

"I have my car," Kelsey said, "so I'll meet you there."

"See you there," Tyler said, and then they parted to go to their cars.

Kelsey spent the drive home alternately looking forward to hooking up with Tyler again and asking herself what she was doing. She didn't want to date, and her evening was looking more and more like a date. But he was so good in bed, and she wanted him, and so what if it looked like a date? It wasn't, and they were both clear on that.

He pulled into the parking lot just behind her. Courtney's car wasn't in the lot, so she really was still at Jason's and they would have the place to themselves.

Tyler followed her into the apartment, and only when the door was closed behind them did he bend down to kiss her. His arms wrapped around her as he did, solid and warm, and Kelsey kissed him back for a minute before she pulled away and kicked off her shoes.

Tyler followed her lead by taking off his shoes and then following her down the hall to her room. He closed the door behind them while she turned on the lamp next to the bed. They met in the middle of the room where Tyler bent down to kiss her again.

It was slow and unhurried, like they had all the time on the world, and even when Tyler walked her back toward the bed, it was only so they could sit on the edge of it and kiss more easily. Kelsey could feel the heat building in her, but she'd missed this kind of easy making out, and she wasn't in a hurry to move on.

Her lips were slick and wet and she could tell her hair was a mess from Tyler's hands when he pulled back to look at her. She was struck again by the blueness of his eyes, and how they'd darkened with lust.

Tyler brushed her hair back. "How do you feel about oral?"

Kelsey frowned at him. "You made me come first last time so I should go down on you?"

"I was thinking I would go down on you," Tyler said mildly.

Kelsey's whole body flushed with heat at the thought. "Oh," she said. "Okay, yeah, I feel good about that."

Tyler flashed her a quick, bright smile, and leaned in to brush his lips up her neck. "Want to get naked for that?"

She wanted him to just keep touching her, but she let him draw back instead so she could pull off her shirt, stand up to push her slacks and panties to the floor, and unhook her bra while she was standing up.

Tyler didn't move, stayed sitting on the edge of her bed watching her, his gaze melting everything in her. She was already wet, and in a minute he was going to have his mouth on her, making her even wetter.

When she was naked, Kelsey stepped closer to Tyler, looking down on him for a change. There was the ghost of a smile playing around his lips, and then he leaned in, wrapped one arm around her waist and pressed a kiss to her hip.

That simple touch sent an electric flare of heat through her. She swayed toward Tyler, and he smiled up at her before pulling her down onto the bed.

Kelsey didn't have to do anything; Tyler was strong enough to lift her up and move her where he wanted her, stretched out on her bed, head on the pillow, legs spread to make space for him between them.

He kissed her, kneeling between her legs and stretching out to cover her. He was still dressed, and she could feel the brush of cloth against her skin. He stayed there for a while, kissing her deep and slow, and then he moved, kissing his way down her neck.

The heat built in her with every kiss, every touch of his lips against her skin. By the time he got to her hips, it felt like every one of Kelsey's nerve endings was alive and tingling, just waiting for more of his touch.

Tyler paused, glancing up at her, and she looked down at him, his blue eyes and the stubble he was careful not to rub too hard over her skin. She pushed one hand into his hair and kept it there as he tipped his chin down to kiss her hip, and then as he dipped his head and licked into her.

He was good at it. He was paying attention to what she liked and doing more of that, and he wasn't shy about putting his whole mouth on her. Kelsey just had to lie there and enjoy it. And enjoy it she did. Tyler licked at her carefully at first, not that she needed it. She was already so wet and turned on that she could probably come without much work at all. But he was doing it anyway, going slow until she was gasping and so, so sensitive.

Kelsey gripped too hard at Tyler's hair when he stopped going quite so slow and focused his attention right where she needed it. She let go once she realized what she was doing, but it didn't bother him enough for him to stop. He just kept mouthing at her, and it was good, so good. He looked good too, his head bent between her thighs, his shirt pulling across the width of his shoulders. And then he slipped two fingers into her, and Kelsey cried out and lost all sense of time and space and just rode out the waves of feeling as he brought her higher and higher until she saw sparks behind her eyes as she came.

She came down slowly, Tyler's touch turning soft and gentle and Kelsey petting his hair just as softly.

He smiled at her when he raised his head from between her legs, and then it turned from soft to smug.

Kelsey laughed and sat up, reaching for him so she could kiss him. "Okay," she said, "I guess I should trust you when you suggest things."

"You should," Tyler said. He licked his lips, probably still tasting her on them. "But now."

Kelsey laughed again, feeling almost giddy in the aftermath of her orgasm. "Yeah, yeah," she said. "You can't come in my mouth, but I'll go down on you."

She sat up as Tyler pulled away from her, watching while he pulled his shirt off and unbuttoned his jeans. He was hard, cock straining against the underwear he pushed off with his jeans.

Kelsey stood up, so she could run her hands over his chest while she kissed him. If she was going to keep hooking up with someone this hot, she deserved to get everything she could out of it.

She turned them around and pushed Tyler onto the bed where she'd been while he ate her out. Tyler went with an easy smile and stretched himself out, head on her pillow, one arm propped under it so he had a good angle to watch her.

Kelsey wouldn't call herself an expert at giving blow jobs, but she was good enough, and she didn't really feel the need to impress Tyler beyond the basics anyway. She tossed her hair over one shoulder so he could see her and got to work. She licked him to get used to how he tasted, and then she took him in her mouth, hand wrapped around the base to hold it steady.

She glanced up at him a few times, watching the tension in his abs and the heat in his eyes as he watched her. It didn't take very long at all before his gasps and moans turned into a warning that he was about to come.

Kelsey pulled off of him and jerked him the rest of the way off, making sure that when he came, it was mostly on him and not her sheets. Tyler relaxed into her bed, eyes closed, and Kelsey reached across him to get a Kleenex from the nightstand. She wiped her hands and his stomach mostly clean.

Tyler wrapped his arm around her and pulled her down before she could get up to really wash her hands. "Thanks," he murmured, and he kissed her so thoroughly she almost considered getting him to make her come again. She didn't, though, and he stopped kissing her after long enough that they were both breathless from it. "Okay," he said. "I'm getting out of your bed now."

Kelsey rolled off of him and watched him get up. She got up too when he started pulling on his clothes, and she went into the bathroom to wash her hands. Then she shrugged into her bathrobe and tied it tightly. She couldn't hear anyone else in the apartment, but that didn't mean Courtney hadn't come home.

Tyler seemed to be thinking the same thing because he caught her around the waist before she could open her bedroom door and kissed her. It was the same kind of deep, appreciative kiss he'd given her before he left the last two times.

The apartment was still empty, no sign of Courtney in the living room or the entryway, and that made Kelsey bold enough to tug Tyler down into another kiss after he put his shoes on.

"Thanks," she said. "For the company and all."

Tyler's smile was small, but unmistakably there. "It was fun," he said, and then he slipped out the door. Kelsey locked it and leaned her forehead against it for a moment. Liking him so much was stupid. She didn't want to date. He was just a good hookup. That was all.

*

Kelsey wasn't the least bit surprised when she ran into Tyler again, although she did start to wonder why they'd never met before if their paths kept crossing. She and Courtney were in the grocery store, half working off the lists on their phones and half just wandering the aisles, when Courtney looked up in the middle of the cereal aisle and said, "Hi, Tyler, Cal."

Kelsey looked up too, and there was Tyler pushing a shopping cart with some other guy next to him with a phone in his hand. The other guy had a narrow face and was smiling at them. "Hey, Courtney. Fancy running into you here."

Courtney grinned at him. "This is my roommate Kelsey. Cal plays with Tyler and Jason."

If Cal had heard anything about her, he didn't let it show, just held out his hand to her to shake. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," Kelsey said. She half smiled at Tyler. "Hey."

Tyler nodded at her, the barest smile on his lips. "Hi."

"So, grocery shopping," Cal said. "I'm trying to talk Tyler into getting Lucky Charms."

"We're not buying Lucky Charms," Tyler said. "You don't even like them."

"You like them," Cal said.

"You want me to buy them so you can buy cookie dough," Tyler said. He had his head cocked toward Cal, and the look on his face was half fond and half reproachful. Kelsey wanted to find out what it tasted like.

She mentally shook it off when Courtney said, "Well, now I want Lucky Charms," and grabbed a box off the shelf. Courtney grinned at the Cal and Tyler. "We'll probably buy cookie dough too. There are good things about not being professional athletes."

Cal shot her a betrayed look, and then he laughed and Tyler chuckled. "Nice," Cal said. "Good to see you, ladies. I'm sure we'll be seeing you again."

"You will," Courtney said, and Kelsey just smiled at both of them.

When Cal and Tyler had turned the corner into another aisle, after grabbing a couple of boxes of decidedly not sugary cereal, Courtney elbowed Kelsey. "You could have at least said something to him."

"I said hi," Kelsey said. "It's not like we really know each other." That was kind of a lie, but one she could get away with since Courtney still didn't know about the night Kelsey had dinner with Tyler. "Are you really buying the Lucky Charms?"

"Yep," Courtney said. "But I won't make you buy cookie dough. You can get ice cream instead."

Kelsey laughed and did grab a pint of chocolate fudge brownie when they went by the frozen foods.

*

Kelsey was juggling three different packages when she went into the post office. Mary Ann was experimenting with online sales. They hadn't taken off much yet, but they got a few orders, and when those orders came in after their mail had already been picked up, Mary Ann sent Kelsey to the post office with cash and packages.

The top package on the stack started to slide off when she set them down on the thin counter that served as a barrier for the line and a place to rest boxes, but a hand reached out and pushed it back into place.

"Thanks," Kelsey said as she smiled and looked up. Right into Tyler's blue eyes. She could feel her smile slip.

"You're welcome." Tyler rested his hand on the stack of packages for a second. "Mailing things?"

"For work," Kelsey said. "We're starting to do online sales." She nodded at the envelope in his hand. "Need stamps?"

"Yeah," Tyler said. "Card for my grandma. She lives in Canada, so I need more stamps."

Kelsey had shipped a few orders to Canada, so she understood the extra postage. "That's nice," she said, "that you're sending her a card."

"Yeah, she's been sick," Tyler said. He flashed a quick grin. "And I told my brother I was going to, so now he'll do something nice for her too."

"That'll be nice for her," Kelsey said. And she meant it. It was sweet. "Younger brother?"

"Yeah, I'm the oldest."

Kelsey nodded. "That sounded like a big brother thing to do." Not that she had any experience with it, but she'd been friends with people who had or were big brothers who would do that kind of thing.

"I guess so," Tyler said. "Do you have a big brother?"

Kelsey shook her head. "Nope. Only child."

"Huh."

Kelsey frowned at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Tyler held up his hands. "Nothing. I just didn't know that. Did you like being an only child?"

Kelsey shrugged. "I don't really have a lot to compare it to. It's just the way my life is." They'd moved up as they talked, and they were at the front of the line. "Go mail your card."

Tyler gave her one of those smiles that was just the slightest turning up of the corners of her mouth. "I'll see you around."

"Yeah, probably," Kelsey agreed. It didn't look like that was going to stop anytime soon.

*

"Are you sure you want to go out?" Courtney asked. "We don't have to. We can order pizza and eat ice cream instead."

"I'm sure." Kelsey leaned into the mirror to make sure none of her makeup needed touching up. "I want to go out." She turned around and let Courtney look her up and down. "Good?"

"You look totally hot," Courtney said.

Courtney was in a more demure black dress and heels. She looked cute, but it wasn't the same as the look Kelsey was going for. Kelsey's dress stretched tight across her body, dipped low at the front and lower at the back, and barely came halfway down her thighs. She'd paired it with three-inch shiny black heels that stretched out her legs and added extra curve to her ass.

"Good," Kelsey said. "Let's go."

Courtney didn't try to talk her out of it again. Maybe going out wasn't the best idea, but it was what Kelsey wanted. She wanted to drink and dance and forget about what made the day such a shitty date on her calendar.

To that end, they went to one of the busier places they could go, one with a dance floor. Kelsey went for the bar first, ordering a pair of shots for her and Courtney. They toasted, downed them, and grinned at each other. Courtney declined another, so Kelsey did the second shot by herself.

They headed onto the dance floor together. It was always easier to start out dancing with someone she knew, and Kelsey knew what kind of attention they could get for dancing together.

The shots were kicking in when a guy came up behind them and put his hands on Kelsey's hips. She flashed a grin at him, and Courtney faded into the crowd so Kelsey could dance with him.

The guy didn't last long, Kelsey turning away from him to someone else when the song changed, and then from that guy to another.

She wasn't thinking, at least, but none of the guys held her attention for more than a song or two. Maybe she needed another shot.

Kelsey slipped away from the guy she was dancing with and headed for the bar. She smiled at the bartender and got herself a third shot. She was turning around from the bar after slamming it back when someone across the bar caught her eye. Head, hips, and shoulders cocked to one side, beer in his hand, and then surprise on Tyler's face as he met Kelsey's eyes across the room.

That would be a better way to not think.

Kelsey slipped through the crowd toward Tyler, and he took a step away from the people he was with when she got close to him.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi." Kelsey was almost breathless with how good he looked up close. "You should take me home."

Tyler looked her up and down, checking her out in a really obvious way, and took a long drink of his beer. "You sure about that?"

Kelsey shoved away her flicker of doubt and nodded firmly. "Yes." He looked good, and he was good in bed. It would be a really good way to not think about what the day used to be.

Tyler looked her over again, his eyes lingering at the top of her dress, and the bottom. "Yeah, okay." He handed his beer off to one of the guys he was with.

Kelsey headed in the direction she'd last seen Courtney, and Tyler followed close behind her, one hand on her back. Her dress was cut low enough that his hand was mostly on her skin.

Courtney was in a group of girls near the edge of the dance floor, several people Kelsey knew and a few she didn't.

Kelsey waved and said hi to the people she knew, and then told Courtney, "Tyler's taking me home." She leaned back against Tyler as she said it, not that she needed to, because Courtney knew exactly what Kelsey intended to do with Tyler once she got him home.

"Okay," Courtney said slowly. "I'll probably call Jason and see if he wants to come out with me." She squeezed Kelsey's hand. "Call me if you need me."

Kelsey surged forward, away from Tyler and toward Courtney, and wrapped her arms around Courtney in a tight hug. "Thank you."

"Of course," Courtney said, because she was just the best friend Kelsey had ever had.

Tyler looked like he didn't quite know where to look, but Kelsey just smiled at him and took his hand to lead him to the coat check and then out of the bar.

The cold outside sobered her up a little bit. Not much, but enough that the flicker of doubt came back. Kelsey took a deep breath and looked at Tyler walking next to her. He was so solid, and he'd been honest with her about what he didn't want. Taking him home was definitely the right choice.

She maybe zoned out a little bit on the drive. Tyler didn't try to make her talk, and she just watched the streets pass outside the window.

"Are you sure you want to do this tonight?" Tyler asked her when they got into the apartment.

"Yes," Kelsey said. She tugged him down and kissed him hard, as much to convince him as to enjoy it herself.

Tyler got into it quickly, pushing his hands into her hair and kissing her deep and wet.

Kelsey wrapped her arms around him and held on tight, taking every bit of distraction and warmth he was offering and holding onto it for all she was worth.

Tyler ended the kiss with a gasp, his blue eyes darker than they had been as he looked at her.

Kelsey got caught there, the fuzziness of the shots she'd done mixing with the fuzziness of wanting him, so all she could do was look at him and try to catch her breath.

"Kelsey," Tyler murmured, and he bent and kissed her softly.

Instead of dwelling on how safe that made her feel, she stepped out of her shoes, pushing them toward the wall so Courtney wouldn't trip on them if she came home. Tyler looked so much bigger when she was barefoot, but in a good way, like she could throw herself at him and he would catch her.

She did just that, plastering herself to him and kissing him with every ounce of pent-up energy she had.

Tyler kissed her back, groaning into her mouth, and then he pushed her away while he kicked off his shoes.

They were kissing again after that, Tyler's hands all over her, and then just on her ass and lifting her up.

Kelsey gasped, and got it together enough to wrap herself around him so he wouldn't drop her. Not that she really thought he would, but she felt safer that way.

He didn't put her down until they were in her room next to the bed. "Your dress," he said. "Is there a zipper?"

"No," Kelsey said, "it just," and then Tyler was peeling it off of her. Kelsey kicked off her panties and dropped her bra to the floor while Tyler got out of his clothes in no time flat.

He looked so good, and Kelsey was wet, and she laid down on the bed, grabbing for a condom and tearing the wrapper open so he could get in her faster.

Tyler knelt up over her while he put the condom on, and then he was leaning down and kissing her while he pushed into her.

He was hot and heavy in her, on her, and after he stopped kissing her they were just looking at each other while Tyler moved in her. It was good. It was good, and then it wasn't as good, maybe the shots wearing off, maybe the day catching up with her, and then, much to her horror, she started to cry.

Tyler stopped moving. "Hey, are you okay?"

That only made Kelsey cry harder. "Fuck," she said. "It's not about you or this, fuck, I'm sorry." She covered her eyes with one arm, and Tyler pulled out of her, and then she rolled onto her side, away from him, where she could cry into her pillow.

She could feel the shift of the bed as he got out of it, and that was probably good. There was no reason he had to deal with her being a mess. But then he was in bed with her again, warm and solid at her back, his cock still hard but covered in cloth, and putting his arm over her.

Kelsey sobbed, horrible, ugly crying, and Tyler was just there, holding her and making her feel cared for and safe.

She couldn't cry forever, and eventually it trailed off into the last few tears and a whole hell of a lot of embarrassment. She sat up, not looking at Tyler as she reached for the Kleenex to wipe the last of the tears out of her eyes and blow her nose. The Kleenex came away dark with mascara and eyeliner. Her face was probably a mess.

"Sorry," she said.

Tyler sat up too, and rubbed her back. "Me too, if I did something."

"No," Kelsey said quickly. "No, it wasn't you." She blinked in case she started to cry again.

"Do you want me to go?" Tyler's hand stopped moving, rested warm and large in the center of her back, behind her heart.

She could say yes. The evening was already an embarrassment. But Courtney wasn't home, and she wasn't sure she could take the quiet. "No," she said. "But you can."

"No," Tyler said. "I want to make sure you're okay. Is there something I can do?"

Kelsey glanced at him, sliding her eyes in his direction for just a moment. He looked completely sincere.

"There's ice cream in the freezer," she said. "If you want to grab it, I'm going to wash my face."

Tyler said, "For sure," and slid his hand across her back and shoulders before he got up.

When he was gone, Kelsey snagged her robe and took it with her into the bathroom. Her makeup had smeared something awful. She took it all off, scrubbed her face clean. Her eyes were still red, but there wasn't anything she could do about that. She put on her robe and tied it tightly before she left the bathroom.

Tyler was sitting on her bed in his underwear and shirt. The ice cream carton was sitting on the nightstand with a pair of spoons resting on it, and Tyler held out a cup to her.

"Water," he said when she took it cautiously. "You've been drinking and crying. You should hydrate."

Kelsey sipped at the water. It tasted amazing. She gulped down the rest of it, and took the cup into the bathroom to refill it.

Tyler had the ice cream when she joined him again. Kelsey sat cross-legged on the bed facing him and took one of the spoons.

Tyler held the carton out to let her take a spoonful first. The ice cream was rich, cool, deeply chocolatey. Kelsey ate her spoonful slowly, savoring it.

"David," she said, "my ex. That's what it was about, not you."

"Yeah?" Tyler dug his spoon into the ice cream and held the carton out to her.

"Yeah." Kelsey sighed. "He came here to go to school, the Business Administration program." She ate tiny bits of her ice cream between sentences. "We met at Lake George, at the beginning of my senior year of high school. He was only a freshman, so he wasn't that much older. My parents even liked him."

Kelsey dug into the ice cream again, making sure to get a piece of brownie this time. "Anyway, we were just, like, texting, at first, but then we started dating. When it was time for me to go to college, I already knew what the Business Administration program was like, and the area, so I came here and we moved in together. I know some people think that's dumb, that there's no way you can know what you want when you're eighteen, but I loved him. And it was great. I mean, you know, the things that happen when you have to figure out how to live with someone else, but our relationship was good. I thought it was good."

Tyler held the ice cream out without her having to ask for it. "What happened?" he asked softly.

"He graduated," Kelsey said, "last spring. And a week later, he told me that we'd had fun and he'd enjoyed his time here, but that he'd taken a job in New York City and it was time for him to move on from Glens Falls. And me."

Tyler winced, and Kelsey nodded.

"I really thought we were going to be together forever. Get married, have kids, grow old together, the whole thing." Kelsey spooned up another piece of brownie. "Today would have been our anniversary. Four years."

"No wonder you wanted to go out and party," Tyler said. He took a spoonful of ice cream.

"Yeah," Kelsey said. "Courtney suggested staying in with pizza and ice cream. I guess maybe I should have listened to her." She made an apologetic face. "You're a really great guy, and you shouldn't have to get stuck with me and my drunken breakdown."

Tyler was quiet for a moment, and then he said, "Julie. That's my ex. We'd kind of known each other for a while, you know, friends who overlap, parties, that kind of thing. But then we ran into each other and it was like there was a spark that time. So we started texting and whatever."

Kelsey spooned up some ice cream without taking her eyes off of him more than necessary so he would know she was really listening.

"She lives in Michigan, so it was mostly long distance. I'd go visit her when I could, she came here a couple of times. She came here for Thanksgiving. I mean, she goes to school near her family, so it's not like it meant she wasn't going to see them at all, but." He shrugged. "It was a holiday, so it was a big deal."

Tyler took a spoonful of ice cream, and Kelsey let him have the break in his story.

"She got a summer internship in Philly so we could live together. She could do her internship, I could work with the Flyers' trainers."

"What happened?" Kelsey asked when Tyler paused.

"It didn't work," Tyler said flatly. "We'd never lived together. We'd never even really been around each other when we weren't trying to make it special because that was all we got. And neither of us had ever lived with someone we were dating. I don't know," Tyler said with a sigh, "maybe we could have made it work, but we didn't. I think we resented each other a lot by the end, and it wasn't even that long, like a couple of months." He smiled faintly. "So I know about getting drunk to not think about it. And that's why I tell perfectly nice girls in bars that I'm not going to call them." He held the ice cream out. There was only a small bite left.

"You don't want it?" Kelsey asked.

"No," he said. "You can have it."

Kelsey put her hand over his to steady the carton while she scraped up the end of the ice cream. "It broke my heart when David left."

"Yeah," Tyler said. "It does that."

Kelsey met his eyes. He was looking at her like he understood because he'd been there too. Kelsey swallowed down the last of her urge to cry with the last of the ice cream.

Tyler took her spoon from her, put both of them in the carton, and leaned over her to put them on the nightstand. Kelsey caught his shirt as he sat back, keeping him close, and she turned her face up to his.

"Kelsey," he murmured.

"Kiss me again," she said. "I'll try not to cry on you this time."

Tyler smiled briefly, but then he dipped his head and kissed her. He put one hand on her cheek as they kissed, and it was so soft, so gentle, like they were both being careful of their healing hearts.

They kept kissing like that, careful and slow. It was different from earlier in the night. There was no urgency, no rush to forget. There was just the slowly unfolding pleasure of their mouths meeting.

When the angle became too strange, Kelsey slowly slid down onto the bed, pulling Tyler with her so he was over her, still kissing her. She was getting wet again, a slower build of heat, and she could feel Tyler hard against her, but they kept going slow, making out for a long time, Kelsey's hands roaming over Tyler's back and his hands never straying lower than her shoulders.

Still, they were pressed together and kissing, and it didn't stay quite so slow forever. Tyler shifted over her, and it pressed him against her just right. She gasped into his mouth. He pulled back enough to look into her eyes, and she looked back, open to him in a way she hadn't been before, and then she reached down and untied the belt of her robe.

Tyler answered that by pulling off his shirt, and then his underwear when Kelsey slipped her arms out of her robe so it was just a spill of cloth beneath her naked body.

Even then there was no rush. Tyler touched her for a long time, still kissing her, but also running his hands all over her body in a way that made heat trail after them. Kelsey returned the favor, touching him everywhere she could reach, trying to make him feel just as good as he was making her feel.

Tyler reached across her to the nightstand. He held up a condom. "Okay?"

Kelsey surged up to kiss him. "Yes," she said. She stroked his shoulders as her hands fell away from him when he sat up. "I'm good. This is good."

Tyler put the condom on, and then slid into her slow and perfect.

If Kelsey felt a little like crying, it wasn't the same as earlier. It was because it was so good, because Tyler was looking in her eyes the whole time, watching to make sure she was okay.

Kelsey reached for him, pulling him down to her. "Kiss me again," she said. "I'm not going to cry."

Tyler brushed her hair back. "Are you sure?" His hips moved in a little hitch that made her gasp.

"I'm sure." Kelsey leaned up to kiss him. "This is good. This is perfect." The last word came out with another gasp as he moved in her again.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, it is." He kissed her, and it was deep and wet, and then he started to move, a slow rocking in and out that was so good she was almost dizzy with pleasure.

Kelsey stopped trying to talk to him. She kissed him, again and again, and shifted her hips just enough that every press into her was more than just good, that every touch was just right, and she felt more than just easy warmth.

The heat built in her, more and more and more, and he just kept kissing her, kept moving against her, and she tore her mouth away from his and gasped out his name as she came.

Tyler kept fucking into her, a few more short, sharp thrusts that sent sparks of aftershocks through her, and then he was saying her name and coming and kissing her again.

They kissed for long moments, slow, messy kisses that felt like the perfect thing after what they'd just done.

Tyler pulled out of her and threw away the condom, and then he was lying down with her and kissing her again. It would have been so easy to just fall asleep like that, warm and sated in her bed with Tyler next to her. That thought shocked her out of the warm, intimate daze she was in.

She pulled away and stared at Tyler. He met her eyes, and they just looked at each other for a long minute.

"I'm going to go," Tyler said, his voice rough and stunned, like he was realizing the same thing she was.

"Yeah," Kelsey said. "Yeah."

She gathered up her robe from under her and pulled it on. She tied it tightly and walked him to the door, because that was what she did when they did this.

She stood by the door while he pulled on his shoes, and she thought maybe this time he wouldn't kiss her goodbye.

He hesitated, but then he put his arms around her and kissed her, deep and slow. He met her eyes when he pulled away, and said, "Goodbye, Kelsey."

"Goodbye, Tyler." Kelsey shut the door behind him, locked it, and took a deep, shuddering breath. She didn't think she was going to cry, but she also wasn't going to fall asleep comfortable and warm like she might have if Tyler had stayed.

*

Kelsey didn't see Tyler again for over a month. She tensed for it sometimes, like when she was in the grocery store or stopping for dinner after work, but when she kept not running into him, she started to think maybe the goodbye she'd said to him the last time really was a goodbye.

She should have been fine with that. She hadn't wanted to date anyway. But she kept missing him in odd moments, times when she really wanted to go home with someone and could only think about how good he was in bed, times when she was struck again with the sting of David's leaving and wanted the reassurance of someone who understood, times when she was eating alone and remembering how much she'd enjoyed having dinner with him.

Kelsey just kept shaking it off. There was nothing to be done about it. Courtney seemed to attribute any dips in Kelsey's mood to the approach of finals, and Kelsey didn't say anything to contradict that assumption. When Courtney didn't ask her about the last time Kelsey had brought Tyler home, Kelsey decided she didn't want to talk about it anyway and didn't volunteer any details.

*

A week after Thanksgiving, Courtney cajoled Kelsey into going out for frozen yogurt.

"I'm not going to crash your date," Kelsey said.

Courtney laughed that off. "Jason and I go on plenty of dates that are just us, and we're going to be busy with finals soon." She looped her arm through Kelsey's. "Come hang out with us."

"Okay, okay," Kelsey said with a laugh. She closed her textbook. "Let's go."

"Yay!" Courtney cheered. She grinned at Kelsey, and they put on shoes and coats.

Courtney turned up the music in the car, grinning at Kelsey until they were both singing along at the top of their lungs.

It was fun. Not that Kelsey hadn't had any fun recently, but between work and school, she hadn't had this kind of simple hanging out with Courtney in a while.

They were both laughing when they walked into the frozen yogurt place, and Courtney turned that brightness on Jason, who was already there.

Tyler was also there, sitting sideways in a chair at the table Jason got up from to greet Courtney. Tyler looked up at Kelsey, and there was a moment, as their eyes met, when they seemed to be isolated, nothing in the world but the two of them.

Tyler dropped his eyes and broke the moment. "Hey."

Kelsey smiled tightly. "Hi." She managed to regain a wider smile by the time Jason and Courtney were done kissing.

"I feel like mint," Courtney said. She grinned brightly at Kelsey. "I know you're going to get a vanilla base."

"Yep. Best place to start from."

They got cups, and then they separated a little as they all chose different flavors of yogurt to start with. They necessarily reconvened near the toppings. Jason and Courtney kept up a lively conversation on the benefits of sprinkles and cookie pieces and sauces.

Kelsey let them do their thing while she put hot fudge and strawberries over her vanilla. It meant she was done first, Jason and Courtney finally starting in on putting toppings on their yogurt.

"What's your strategy?" Courtney asked Tyler.

Tyler shrugged. "I don't really have one. I just put on whatever sounds good." He looked down at his cup, and poured a small scoop of gummy bears into it.

"He ends up with weird combinations," Jason said.

"Yeah," Tyler admitted. "Sometimes." He added skittles and then cookie dough bits.

"So what's your strategy?" Jason asked Kelsey.

Kelsey tipped her cup toward him to show him what she'd chosen. "Plain and simple," she said.

"But still really rich and delicious," Jason said. He tipped his cup in her direction. "Most of us have to make a bunch of different choices to get to that."

Kelsey shrugged. "Sometimes I go for more things, but this is what I want today."

"Nothing wrong with that," Jason said.

Tyler finally stepped away from the toppings, and he and Jason rock-paper-scissored as they walked to the counter.

"Cheater," Jason said cheerfully when he lost. He pulled out his wallet when they got to the counter and paid for all four of them despite Kelsey's protest that she could buy her own. "Nah," Jason said. "We're gainfully employed and you two both go to school. Only fair for us to get it, and I lost."

"I work too," Kelsey said.

"No, I know that," Jason said. "That's not what I meant. I just meant let us do this."

Jason was actually a nice guy, and Courtney was giving her a weird look - Kelsey didn't look to see what Tyler was doing - so she let it go and smiled at Jason. "Thanks."

The girl at the counter ran Jason's card, and the four of them made their way to a table.

"So how is your job?" Jason asked.

"Good," Kelsey said. She could probably say a lot of things about her job, but she didn't really feel like saying them to him.

"Online sales taking off?" Tyler asked, and Kelsey looked right at him for the first time since they'd first gotten there. He looked completely sincere in his interest. He probably was.

"A little bit," Kelsey said. She smiled at him, kind of faintly, but real. "I've been making more post office runs. How's your grandma?"

"Oh, she's great," Tyler said. "Had the flu, but she's pretty tough."

Jason and Courtney were ignoring them in favor of being cutesy and taking bites of each other's yogurt creations.

"I'm glad to hear that," Kelsey said, completely meaning it. She was trying not to forget the intensity of the last time they saw each other, but it was just so easy to talk to him. She scraped her spoon through the hot fudge in her cup. "Did you get your brother to do something nice for her too?"

"Oh, yeah, he sent her flowers, so then I had to send her flowers because I couldn't let him show me up."

Kelsey chuckled around a spoonful of hot fudge and strawberry.

Tyler flashed her a quick smile. "Grandma got swag out of that flu."

That made Jason and Courtney stop being cutesy, or Jason anyway. He turned an incredulous stare on Tyler. "Did you really just say that?"

"Yep," Tyler said. "Cody would agree with me."

"Who's Cody?" Courtney asked when Jason just shook his head.

"My brother," Tyler said.

Kelsey ate careful bites of her frozen yogurt, letting them carry on the conversation.

"Oh," Courtney said. "Older or younger?"

"Younger," Tyler said.

"Another oldest child," Courtney said. "I have two sisters and a brother." She grinned at Kelsey. "And Kelsey."

Kelsey smiled back at her while Jason and Tyler looked from her to Courtney.

"Kelsey's an only child," Courtney explained to Jason and Tyler. "We would always go over to her house when we wanted it to be just us, and over to mine when we needed more people."

"You grew up together?" Jason asked.

"Yep," Courtney said. "Best friends since kindergarten." She held out her hand, and Kelsey smiled as she hooked her little finger with Courtney's. "Sometimes the things you pinkie swear when you're five last forever."

Kelsey kept smiling as she sat back and dug into her yogurt.

"That's how you know she starts with vanilla," Jason said.

"For frozen yogurt," Courtney said, still smiling at Kelsey. "She likes chocolate ice cream."

"Okay," Jason said slowly.

Kelsey stopped smiling and looked down into her cup. She knew it was an odd distinction, but she didn't really want to deal with Courtney's boyfriend judging her over it.

There was an awkward pause, and then Courtney asked, "How's yours, Tyler?"

"I think I should have gone with Kelsey's strategy," Tyler said. "It's all good, but it doesn't really fit together in combination."

"Did you start with cake batter yogurt again?" Jason asked.

"It's the best one," Tyler said. He looked forlornly at his cup. "It just doesn't always mix the best."

Kelsey tamped down the urge to offer him a spoonful of hers. Things weren't like that between them, and there wasn't any reason for her to try to make the evening better for him. Even if she wanted to.

"You've gotta up your game," Jason said, and from there it devolved into the kind of affectionate teasing guys were prone to.

Kelsey listened to it with half an ear while she ate carefully balanced spoonfuls of frozen yogurt, hot fudge, and strawberries.

Jason and Tyler eventually moved on from their teasing and included Kelsey and Courtney in their conversation again. It was fun. It was easy. Courtney was her best friend, so of course it was easy with her. Jason was pretty easy to get along with, even in the beginning before Kelsey had gotten to know him. And Tyler was just as easy to talk to as he had been every other time she'd spent time with him. Kelsey kept catching herself smiling at him, or bringing up things from their previous conversations and then reminding herself that that wasn't the kind of relationship they really had.

It didn't get awkward until they were outside saying goodbye and Tyler and Kelsey just stood there and looked at each other while Courtney and Jason kissed goodbye. Kelsey wanted to hug Tyler, wanted to feel his arms tight around her, but the last time they'd hooked up had shown her that wasn't a good idea. It was too easy to get close to him, and that wasn't what she needed in her life.

Kelsey and Tyler waved awkwardly at each other when Courtney and Jason were done, and then she and Courtney walked away from Jason and Tyler.

In the car, Courtney turned the volume on the stereo down and asked, "What's with you and Tyler?"

Kelsey shrugged, not wanting to tell even Courtney the whole depth of it. "Nothing. We hooked up a couple of times." She looked over at Courtney. "We can be chill and hang with you and Jason."

"I know you can be chill," Courtney said. "It just seemed like there was something going on there."

Kelsey shrugged. "You know, you hook up with someone and then it's kind of weird but you also know them a little." It was true enough, if only a faint version of the truth.

"Okay," Courtney said. "If you're sure it's cool to hang out with him."

"Yeah, it's fine." Or it would be. Kelsey could make it be anyway.

*

Kelsey put her head down and focused on school all the way through finals, and then picked up extra hours at the shop. The holiday season meant more business, both people coming into the store and online orders that needed to be filled and mailed, and Mary Ann was as happy to have Kelsey working extra hours as Kelsey was to be working them. It gave her something to do, and she was making money to buy Christmas presents and save up for whatever the next semester was going to bring.

They were set to close at four on Christmas Eve, and they stayed open until six because there were people in and out of the store all day.

"Thank you for staying," Mary Ann said when they finally closed up. She looked tired, but pleased with their business for the day.

"No problem," Kelsey said. She pulled out the register drawer. "I can finish closing up, if you want to go home to your family."

Mary Ann came over and hugged her. "No, I'll close. You go home. You have a longer drive." It wasn't that much longer, but Kelsey hugged Mary Ann back and let her take over the register drawer.

"I do have something for you," Mary Ann said, following Kelsey into the back. She went into the office while Kelsey pulled on her coat. She came back with an envelope. "Christmas bonus."

Kelsey hugged Mary Ann again instead of opening the envelope. "Thanks, Mary Ann. Have a nice Christmas."

"You too," Mary Ann said.

Kelsey tucked the envelope into her purse and went home to throw the rest of her stuff into an overnight bag. Courtney had already left, so Kelsey turned the heat off and texted her parents to say she was on her way.

It was later than Kelsey had planned to leave, but it wasn't too late by the time she made it to her parents'. The house was lit up, the inside lights and Christmas lights outside turned on and casting warm glows on the snow outside.

Mom came out of the kitchen and Dad came out of the living room when Kelsey pushed open the door and called out a hello. Kelsey dropped her coat onto a hook in the entryway and hugged both her parents.

"How was the drive?" Dad asked.

"It was fine," Kelsey said.

"Dinner's almost ready," Mom said. "Put your bag in your room, and we'll eat."

Kelsey did as she was told, stopping in the living room to put presents under the tree before she joined her parents in the dining room for dinner.

Kelsey talked to her parents enough that there wasn't a lot of news to share, but being across the dinner table made it easier for Mom to pin her with a look and ask, "Are you seeing anyone?"

Kelsey flashed on Tyler's face, the way he looked when he really smiled and the bright blue of his eyes, but she said, "No."

"You must be meeting people," Mom said. "Didn't you say Courtney's boyfriend plays a sport? I'm sure he could introduce you to some people."

"He plays hockey," Kelsey said. "Professionally. I've met some of his teammates." She tried not to think about Tyler. She didn't need to make the conversation any more complicated by giving her mom the hint that there might be something else there.

"And you're not interested in any of them? I'm sure they know other people too."

"Mom, come on," Kelsey said.

"Honey," Mom said.

Kelsey shook her head. "I'm not ready."

"It's been seven months."

"And it was three and a half years before that," Kelsey said. "I just need more time." When Mom opened her mouth, Kelsey appealed to Dad, hoping he would back her up.

"We're just worried about you, sweetheart," he said.

"I'm _fine_ ," Kelsey said. "I'm just focusing on school right now. I'll date again when I'm ready."

"We just want you to be happy," Mom said, and then she finally dropped the subject.

*

Christmas morning was quiet, breakfast and opening presents - Kelsey even had a stocking to go with her other presents - and they were still hanging around the living room, all three of them in pajamas, when there was a knock on the door.

Dad got up to answer it, and came back with Courtney.

"Merry Christmas," Courtney said, and she hugged Mom and then Kelsey. "Things are crazy at my house. I thought I'd get away for a minute."

"You're always welcome here, you know that," Mom said. Then she said, "I think I'm going to go get dressed," and Dad went with her, leaving Kelsey and Courtney alone in the living room.

"Look," Courtney said, drawing a pendant away from her chest so Kelsey could see it. "Present from Jason. He made me promise not to open it until this morning."

Kelsey put her fingers under the pendant to get a better look at it. Diamond, unless it was fake, set in gold on a matching gold chain. "Wow," she said. "That's beautiful."

"I know," Courtney said. "I love it. Jason's great."

Kelsey made a face. "Keep your voice down."

Courtney laughed. "What? Are we ten again, trying not to let your parents know we're talking about boys?"

"We might as well be," Kelsey groaned. "They asked me if I was seeing anyone."

"Oh no," Courtney said.

"Yeah. And they suggested Jason could introduce me to people."

"Oh _no_ ," Courtney said again. "You didn't tell them anything about Tyler, did you?"

" _No!_ " Kelsey glanced at the stairs. "Do not let them hear you say his name."

Courtney also looked at stairs. "Quick, go get dressed. We'll go to my house. My family wants to see you anyway."

Kelsey grinned at her and dashed up the stairs to her room. She swapped her pajamas for jeans and a sweater, ran a brush through her hair, and grabbed her phone and keys. "I'm going over to Courtney's," she called as she dashed back down the stairs. It was like being a teenager again, or ten or six or any of the million times she'd done the same thing growing up.

"Don't be out too late," Mom called, just like she had a million times before.

Kelsey shoved her feet into her boots, pulled on her jacket and a hat, and fell out of the house with Courtney, both of them laughing. Kelsey hooked her arm through Courtney's.

"This is nice," she said. "Even if it is freezing."

"It is," Courtney said. "Just like when we were kids."

And just like when they were kids, there were a couple of neighbors in the three blocks between their houses who waved and called out hellos.

As they turned the block toward Courtney's house, Kelsey dropped her arm and said, "Race you," even as she took off for the door.

They slipped and slid a little in the snow, and then they crashed into and through the door. And then they were inside and the chaos of Courtney's house on Christmas meant no one was going to ask Kelsey about dating.

*

Kelsey spent most of winter break working, but that still left her enough time to have some fun, read something that wasn't for school, and sleep in. People started coming back from their vacations in the middle of January, taking time to hang out before classes started.

On a Tuesday night, Kelsey and Courtney swung by to pick up their friends Brie and Sarah and went to the movies.

"You're not going to see this with Jason?" Brie asked.

"We don't have to do everything together," Courtney said. "I want to spend time with my girls."

"Enough talk about your boyfriend," Sarah said. "We need to talk about Chris Pine and how I can make him my boyfriend."

They all laughed, and Courtney said, "Good luck with that one."

"But you have to admit she has taste," Brie said. "I love Kevin, but Chris Pine is _fine_."

"I'm still not dating," Kelsey said, "but even I might make an exception for Chris Pine."

They all laughed again, and Brie asked, "Really?"

Kelsey shrugged, glancing at her in the rearview mirror. "He's hot, and those eyes."

"Kelsey likes blue eyes," Courtney said.

Kelsey shot her a sharp look, and Courtney just shrugged at her. "You do. You always have."

It wasn't untrue, and as long as Courtney wasn't talking about anyone specific, there wasn't any reason for Kelsey to be upset about it.

"Well, you can't have him anyway," Sarah said, "because he's going to be mine."

They all laughed, and they were still laughing about it when Kelsey parked the car and they went into the theater to buy their tickets.

"I want a snack," Brie declared once they were inside, so they all went to stand around the concessions area and look at the menu. "If I get popcorn, will you all help me eat it?"

"I will," Kelsey said. She hadn't had movie popcorn in a while. "I'll get drinks."

"And I'm buying M&Ms," Sarah said. "We don't have to put them in the popcorn," she added before anyone could protest.

"Red Vines," Courtney said.

They stepped up to the counter, paying for their snacks and then finding their theater and looking at their choices of empty seats. They took four in the middle of an empty row halfway up the theater, and passed napkins and snacks around until everyone had what they wanted.

It wasn't two minutes later that a group of guys walked into the theater, and Kelsey sank back into her seat in a brief moment of resignation at the change in their evening before she had to smile as Jason spotted them and brought his group up to meet theirs. He was with Tyler, Cal, and someone Kelsey hadn't met yet.

"What are you doing here?" Courtney asked when Jason came up to where they were and leaned in to kiss her.

"Seeing a movie," he said with a grin. "You ladies mind if we join you?" He gestured at the other guys. "Tyler, Cal, Oliver, this is Kelsey, Brie, and Sarah."

Courtney looked at the rest of them for an answer. Kelsey shrugged, because she'd been enjoying the night out with just the four of them, but having the guys in the theater was going to change things anyway, and she could handle it if everyone else wanted to sit with them. Brie seemed to share her willingness to go along with whatever Courtney and Sarah wanted.

"Of course not," Sarah said with a smile that took in all four of the guys.

The reshuffling of their seating arrangement ended up with Kelsey near the middle, between Tyler and Cal. One one side of her, Cal leaned over to talk to Courtney and Jason. On the other side, Brie and Sarah were chatting with Oliver, which left Kelsey and Tyler to look at each other.

"Did you have a good Christmas?" Tyler asked after an awkward moment of silence.

"Yes," Kelsey said. "I drove down and spent it with my parents. How about you?"

"It was good," Tyler said. "We had a game the day after, but I flew home for a few days. Got to see my brother while I was there."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Tyler gave her a faint smile. "We both got big hugs from our grandma."

That surprised Kelsey into a laugh, which made Tyler's smile get a little bigger.

"What's making you laugh?" Sarah asked from the other side of Tyler.

Kelsey met Tyler's eyes for one electric moment that made her breathless. Then she shook it off and looked past him to Sarah. "Kind of an inside joke," she offered.

Sarah raised her eyebrows at Kelsey and then looked at Tyler. "I didn't know you knew each other well enough to have inside jokes."

Tyler looked at Kelsey, leaving it up to her to answer Sarah.

"You know," Kelsey said with a shrug, "he's friends with Jason, and Jason and Courtney are always together, so." She shrugged again.

"They are always together," Oliver said, and that drew Sarah and Brie's attention to him again.

"Sorry," Tyler said in an undertone. "That was awkward."

Kelsey shrugged. There wasn't anything she could say to that. It was awkward, and it would probably continue to be awkward. She was saved from having to make any more conversation by the dimming of the lights.

They passed snacks back and forth through the first few trailers, until everyone was settled with what they wanted, and then all Kelsey had to do was watch Chris Pine run around Moscow and New York for two hours.

There was a lot of chatter when the movie was over, everyone offering opinions while they pulled on their coats and gathered up their trash.

Their overlapping conversations carried over into the lobby, where Sarah caught up to Kelsey and hooked an arm through hers. "Kelsey agrees with me," Sarah declared.

"What do I agree with you about?"

"That Chris Pine has great eyes and is totally dreamy." There was an edge of playfulness to Sarah's declaration that kept it from sounding completely absurd.

Kelsey laughed and leaned against Sarah. "I do agree with you." She was still smiling when she looked up and met Tyler's eyes, just as blue as Chris Pine's but set in a face that was looking directly at her, like he was seeing right into her.

No one else noticed them having a moment because Jason said, "We have practice in the morning," and that distracted everyone into saying goodbye.

It would have been weird if Kelsey hadn't hugged Tyler with everyone hugging everyone else, so she went into it with literally open arms. It felt so good, Tyler's arms wrapped tight around her, Kelsey's nose pressed to his shoulder where she could smell him, that Kelsey just settled into it when Tyler held on for a few seconds too long.

He smiled at her, mouth and eyes soft when he pulled away, and she returned it, unable to do anything else.

They had to wait for Courtney and Jason to kiss goodbye, and then they separated into two groups as they went out into the cold.

The moment the car doors were closed, Sarah said, "You have to introduce me to more of Jason's friends."

" _Sarah_ ," Brie said.

"What? They're cute. They're athletes so they probably have stamina."

Brie laughed, and Courtney said, "Oh, they do. Or Jason does anyway."

Kelsey ignored the way Courtney was glancing in her direction.

Sarah poked Kelsey's shoulder. "What's up with you and Tyler? You seemed to be getting along, and he has very blue eyes."

Kelsey paused for a moment, deciding what she wanted to tell them, but they were all close friends and there was no reason not to spill at least some of it. "We've hooked up a couple of times," she admitted.

"Really?" Brie asked.

"Yep."

"So you weren't joking when you said you'd make an exception for blue eyes," Sarah said.

Everyone else laughed, and even Kelsey had to smile reluctantly.

"So does he have stamina?" Sarah asked.

"Oh my God, I'm not telling you any more about it," Kelsey said.

"Spoilsport," Sarah said. "It's been too long since I had a good hookup. You could at least tell me about yours."

"You went home with that bartender, like, last week," Brie said.

"Yeah, but he wasn't anything special."

They all laughed, and it took the attention off of Kelsey, enough that no one else asked her about Tyler.

*

Kelsey managed to go for a while without running into Tyler much. She saw him out at bars sometimes, when she was with Courtney or Brie and Sarah, but they only nodded at each other in passing, and Kelsey kept her attention on her friends. As much as part of her ached to get close to Tyler again, she didn't want to get drawn into anything more complicated than the few hookups they'd already had.

At the end of February, Courtney talked Kelsey, Brie, and Sarah into going to one of Jason's games with her. Courtney been to a couple already, with some of the other players' wives and girlfriends, but it was the first hockey game for the rest of them.

"This is a lot of people," Brie said as they found their seats.

"They're popular around here," Courtney said. She gave them a rundown of how the game worked while they were waiting for it to start.

Before the game started, there was a big production of introducing the starting players. Jason wasn't one of them, but Tyler was.

Sarah leaned over Courtney to say, "There's your boy," to Kelsey.

"He's not mine," Kelsey protested, but she looked more carefully at the line of players on the ice. They didn't have their helmets on, standing together for the anthem. The shape of Tyler's face was familiar, but he looked different in his hockey gear.

The game moved too fast for Kelsey to catch much of the action, so she picked out the number on Tyler's back and watched for that as much as she could. She couldn't quite follow what was happening, but she knew he'd done something good when the announcers called his name after a goal.

"I have no idea what's happening," Sarah said cheerfully.

"Assists," Courtney said. "Tyler and Mark helped on the goal, so they each get a point." She gave them a brief rundown of what points meant in hockey.

"So Kelsey's boy is doing well," Sarah said.

Courtney's, "Yes," overlapped with Kelsey's, "He's not my boy."

"Sure," Sarah said. "But success is sexy, right?"

On the other side of her, Brie stopped being able to hold in her laughter. "Oh my God, Sarah."

Sarah flashed a grin. "It's true."

"Yep," Courtney said. "I hope Jason gets a point."

He didn't, and despite Tyler and the guys he was on the ice with getting a second goal near the end, the Phantoms lost.

"Is Jason going to want to see us after they lost?" Brie asked when they lingered around the rink at the end of the game.

"He knew we were coming," Courtney said. "They won't be happy about losing, but he'll come see us."

There were a few other people hanging around, fans with things they want players to sign. The four of them stayed to the side, letting the fans get autographs and pictures, while they waited for Jason.

Jason brought a Oliver and another guy over with him. He kissed Courtney and accepted her tight hug first, then introduced them all to Mark.

While everyone else was talking, Brie leaned over to Kelsey and said, "We're going to need a team roster to keep them all straight if we keep meeting more of them."

Kelsey laughed. "There are a lot of them." She looked up at Jason and the other guys in front of them, and then past that, to where the last few fans were still hanging around. Tyler was there, wearing a suit and crouched down next to one of the kids. Tyler and the kid both had serious looks on their faces as they talked. Tyler signed the kid's piece of paper, and then they both turned to a woman who must have been the kid's mom while she took a picture of them with her phone.

Kelsey drifted to the side, away from the group she was with, to where she was just opposite where Tyler was saying goodbye to the kid.

Tyler stood up, looked up, and met Kelsey's eyes. He looked so good, and he was looking at her like he wanted to see her. Kelsey didn't look away while he crossed the space between them.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi." Kelsey finally dropped her eyes, looking down at the ground between them. She wanted so much to step forward into him, and that was probably showing in her face.

"I got a ride to the rink," Tyler said, "so I can't drive you home."

Kelsey glanced up. He was looking down at her, and there was an echo of what she was feeling on his face. She stopped herself from reaching out for him.

"I drove," she said, "and we came in two cars. I can give you a ride."

Tyler nodded his agreement. Kelsey drifted back to her group and tugged Brie a few steps away from them. Brie was the other driver, and she was the least likely to draw attention to what Kelsey was about to say.

"I'm going to give Tyler a ride home," Kelsey said. "Can you make sure everyone else has a ride?"

Brie raised her eyebrows, but didn't make any other comment. "Yeah, sure. Have a good night."

Kelsey smiled briefly at her and slid away from their group to where Tyler was still waiting for her. He reached out like he was going to touch her, and then let his hand drop.

"Ready?" Kelsey asked.

"Yeah." Tyler followed her to her car, waited for her to unlock it before he could get in.

In the moment before they both closed their doors and the overhead light went off, she could see the strong line of his jaw, the way his hair was still damp.

They didn't talk in the car, other than Tyler giving her directions.

Kelsey pulled into the space he directed her to in front of his building and turned off the car.

"Come up?" he asked.

Like there was a chance she was going to say no to him. "Yes." Her fingers itched to reach out and touch him.

Tyler led her into the building and up to his floor. The apartment was dimly lit when he opened the door, one lamp in the living room casting just enough light into the entryway for them to see by.

They stopped to take off their shoes, and Kelsey hung her coat and purse on one of the hooks on the wall.

Tyler touched her arm, the first time he'd touched her all night. It sent a shock through her, and her eyes snapped to his while she sucked in a breath.

"I need to grab some water," he said. "Have to rehydrate. You want anything?"

Kelsey shook her head, but she followed him to the kitchen. He filled a water glass from a pitcher in the fridge, drank it down, and refilled it. He took the second glass with him as he turned off the light and walked further into the apartment. Kelsey followed him down a short hall to one of the bedrooms. Tyler turned on the light and closed the door behind them. He drank from his water glass and then set it down on a crowded nightstand.

He loosened his tie as he walked back to where Kelsey was still just inside the door. He stopped just in front of her, slight smile on his face. "Hi."

Kelsey smiled back at him. "Hi." She reached for him at the same time he reached for her, and they met in the middle in a kiss that was so soft and so perfect her heart ached with it. Kelsey closed her eyes and rested her forehead against Tyler's chest, feeling the heat of him through his dress shirt.

Tyler wrapped his arms around her, and she felt so safe, so cared for.

"This is a bad idea," she said, because it was. It was so easy to be with him, so easy for them to be together, and it was everything neither of them wanted. "I'm not ready to do this again."

"I know," Tyler said. "I'm not either." And then he tipped her face up and kissed her again. "I promise not to call you," he murmured against her lips.

Kelsey let out a short, hysterical laugh. "You don't even have my number."

Tyler looked down at her, serious and solemn. "So you know I won't." He brushed her hair back and kissed her.

Kelsey leaned into it, leaned into him, giving up on rationality and letting the feelings Tyler brought out in her take over. She kissed him back, opening up to him and letting him lick deeply into her mouth.

She slid her hands under Tyler's suit jacket, getting closer to his warmth, feeling the strong muscles of his back through his dress shirt.

One of Tyler's hands slid up under her sweater, warm and solid at the small of her back. With that one touch of skin on skin, every one of Kelsey's senses burst to life, and then it wasn't enough to touch him through his shirt, to have his hand and mouth be the only places he was touching her skin.

Kelsey moved her hands, bringing them between their bodies and up to the top button of Tyler's shirt.

Tyler sighed into her mouth when she undid the first button. When she got to the third, he broke away from her. "Take off your clothes," he said, voice rough.

Kelsey pulled her sweater over her head first so then she could watch him undress while she took off her jeans. He hung his tie on a rack in the closet, his jacket on a hanger. He was more casual with his pants and shirt, draping them over a hamper in his closet, and Kelsey reached behind herself to unhook her bra while he stepped out of his boxer briefs. By the time she pushed her panties down and off, he was walking across the room toward her.

He stopped just far enough away that he could touch her, hands settling onto her hips while he just looked at her. It sent heat all through her and made her breath come faster. Kelsey looked him over, letting her eyes linger on the familiar line of his jaw, the strength in his arms, the hardening curve of his cock.

Tyler ran his hand up her side, spreading warmth across her bare skin. "Come to bed," he said.

Kelsey nodded. "Yes," she said.

Tyler's bed was neatly made, dark gray sheets and comforter in straight lines against the large, dark curve of the headboard. He pushed the sheets and comforter aside to make room for them.

Kelsey followed him across the room and got into his bed. Tyler looked down at her for half a second before he stretched out over her, hands framing her face, legs outside of hers, his body warm and strong above her.

Kelsey reached up to run her fingers lightly over his cheek. He leaned down so she didn't have to lean up very far to kiss him. The kiss got heated fast, both of them opening up to it and Kelsey putting her arms around Tyler and pulling him more firmly down on top of her.

Tyler kept one hand on her cheek, and the other ran down her neck, down her arm, over her side, across her hip. Her nerves sparked to life everywhere he touched her.

"Kelsey," he murmured.

She clung to him, arms tight around him and fingers digging into his back. "Please," she said. "Just-"

He pulled back enough to meet her eyes, his gone dark and serious. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," she agreed.

He slid his free hand in, between her legs, and groaned to match her gasp when he pressed his fingers against where she was so wet and sensitive.

Kelsey leaned up to press her lips against his throat, the dip between his collarbones, while Tyler reached into the top drawer of his nightstand and came up with a condom.

He had to pull all the way away from her to roll it on, and then they were both moving, Kelsey spreading her legs to make space for him, Tyler settling into that space.

Kelsey moaned when he pushed into her.

"Shh," Tyler said. "Cal's sleeping."

Kelsey bit her lip until Tyler kissed her. Then she didn't have to think about being quiet and could think about what they were doing instead, the way he felt hard and thick inside her.

Kelsey tilted her hips up to get him deeper inside her, wrapped herself around him as best she could, and let herself get lost in the intensity of how it felt to be so intimately connected to Tyler.

Every one of his thrusts sent waves of sensation through her. He was kissing her too, and touching her, and she was touching him back, hands roaming over his back and down his arms, legs wrapped around his hips.

Tyler lifted his mouth from hers, and she opened her eyes to look at him, his lips red and eyes dark.

"I want you to come," he said, hips grinding into hers to punctuate his words.

Kelsey's mouth fell open on a gasp. "Yes," she said. "I want-"

Tyler moved in her, short, barely there thrusts that were more of a grind than anything else. "Can you, like this?"

Kelsey waited out a few more thrusts, paying attention to the way they made the heat slowly build in her. "I need," she said, squirming against him. She needed a little more if she was going to come.

There was an awkward moment while Tyler pulled back a little and they were a confused tangle of limbs until Kelsey said, "I can," and got her hand between them, fingers right where she needed them.

That was good, Tyler pushing into her over and over, his cock filling her up, his mouth on hers, and her own hand between them. She didn't have to work for it very hard; his thrusts kept pushing her fingers tighter against her, setting up a rhythm that matched the rhythm of his cock in her.

It worked to make Kelsey's desire spiral up and up and up until it finally broke into an orgasm that had her crying out, not caring that Tyler only managed to silence part of it with his kiss. She did her best to keep kissing him while he thrust into her a few more times before groaning his way through his own orgasm.

He stayed on her and in her for a little longer, kissing her with a softness that almost made her cry. Even after he pulled out and took care of the condom, Tyler stayed close, on his side next to her. Kelsey turned to face him and traced the line of his jaw with one finger before she leaned in to kiss him again.

He was all warmth and strength, pulling her close so she could feel him, and his sheets were soft against her skin.

Kelsey never wanted to leave.

"I'm not going to stay," she said.

"No." Tyler brushed her hair away from her face. "You shouldn't." And then he leaned in and kissed her again.

They made out for a long time, the kind of soft, slow kisses Kelsey associated with boyfriends and lazy Saturday afternoons, the kind of thing that made her want to stay, to spend the rest of her life with him.

That thought was scary enough for her to finally break away from him. "I should go," she said, looking right into his serious blue eyes.

Tyler stroked her cheek. "Okay."

Kelsey got out of bed. She pulled on her clothes piece by piece and only looked at him again once she was fully dressed.

He was in just a pair of pajama pants, hanging low on his hips and leaving his chest bare to her gaze. Kelsey's breath caught, and then she turned around and walked out of his room.

Tyler followed her to the entryway and waited while she put on her shoes and coat, grabbed her purse off the hook and automatically checked for her keys and phone.

"Kelsey," he said, and then she went to him, hands against that warm, bare skin while he bent and kissed her softly.

Kelsey leaned up into it, drinking in the softness of his kiss, the way he smelled, the feeling of his skin under her hands. Neither one of them spoke when their lips parted, Tyler's hand still curved around the back of her neck, her hands still flat against his chest.

Kelsey leaned her forehead against his shoulder for one long moment, and then she pulled away, turned around, and walked out of his apartment.

*

"You went home with Tyler again last night," Courtney said in the morning. She put her cereal bowl in the sink and sat down next to Kelsey on the couch. "Am I right that you don't want to talk about it?"

Kelsey didn't have to think about it for very long before agreeing that she didn't want to talk about it. There could be comfort in talking to Courtney, but she also didn't want to make how she felt about Tyler any more real by putting it into words.

"Can we talk about my relationship?" Courtney asked. "Or is that going to be weird?"

Kelsey turned off the TV and turned so she was facing Courtney. "No, we can talk about it."

Courtney sighed. "They're leaving."

Kelsey blinked. "Like on a road trip?"

"No," Courtney said. "Like out of Glens Falls. The Phantoms are moving to Pennsylvania after this season."

"Oh," Kelsey said. She hadn't heard that, but then, she hadn't paid that much attention to local sports news, and it wasn't one of the things she and Tyler had talked about.

"Yeah." Courtney slumped against the back of the couch. "I'm thinking about going with."

That was even more surprising. "Really?"

Courtney nodded. "This thing with Jason is really good, and I love him. I think I love him enough to move to Pennsylvania with him. Or wherever. There's a chance he'll end up somewhere else."

"Wow," Kelsey said. "I knew you were serious, but I didn't know you were that serious."

Courtney sat up. "I don't know if I am, but we're graduating. Things were always going to change at the end of this year anyway."

Kelsey put her arm around Courtney's shoulders. "I was supposed to be going somewhere with David."

Courtney nodded. "And I was going to have to figure out if I wanted to get a job here or go to New York or Albany or what I wanted." She put her head down on Kelsey's shoulder. "Will you hate me if I go to Pennsylvania with Jason?"

"No," Kelsey said. "I could never hate you. I guess I'll be the one trying to figure out what I want to do."

"Whatever it is," Courtney said, "we'll still be best friends." She held up her pinky.

Kelsey hooked her own around it. "Best friends forever."

*

The bell over the door rang at five minutes to closing. Mary Ann had a policy that they would help any customer who came in before they locked the door at closing time, which meant that Kelsey's day had just gotten longer. Usually she didn't mind that much, but it was spring break, and she was really looking forward to going home and not having to do homework.

Kelsey put on her best helping the customer smile and looked up, only to see Tyler looking around curiously. He looked good, tall and strong, if out of place in the shop.

"Hi," she said. "This doesn't really seem like your kind of place."

He half smiled at her, meeting her eyes easily. "Not really."

"So what are you doing here?" Kelsey asked, not exactly trying to get him out of there, but still hoping she could go home soon.

Tyler shrugged his shoulders a little. "Can I buy you dinner?"

That wasn't what Kelsey was expecting. They'd already agreed they weren't dating, hooking up and their one previous dinner together aside.

"I know we're not doing this," Tyler said when she didn't have an answer for him right away. "But you're on spring break and Courtney's with Jason, so if you want to get dinner and have some company, I'll buy you dinner. If you don't have other plans."

Kelsey was just as surprised by the thoughtfulness of the invitation as she was by the invitation in the first place. He'd even given her a graceful out, and she could say she had other plans and go home like she'd originally planned. But she enjoyed his company and she would have fun if they went out to dinner.

"Okay," she said. "I have to close, but then we can go."

Tyler smiled at her. "Cool. Do you want me to wait outside?"

Kelsey smiled at him. "No, you can stay." David had come to meet her at the end of the day when they were dating, and Mary Ann had never had a problem with him being there. It would be fine for Tyler to hang out with her for a few minutes.

Kelsey locked the front door and flipped the sign to closed when the clock ticked over. Tyler stayed out of her way, checking messages on his phone, while she went through the rest of the closing up routine. 

Kelsey had been taking advantage of the quiet afternoon to straighten displays and make sure the place looked good, so there wasn't much she had to do before she could leave, and it wasn't much later that she locked the back office, turned out most of the lights, and unlocked the door so she and Tyler could leave.

Tyler put his phone away and followed her outside, and then waited while she relocked the door and tucked her keys into her purse.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"The Brewpub?" he offered. "Unless you want to go somewhere else."

"No," Kelsey said, "that sounds good." The Brewpub was nice without being too nice, and they could walk there.

It wasn't a long walk, and it was a quiet enough night that they didn't have to wait for a table once they got there.

Kelsey put down her menu when she'd decided what she was having, and waited a moment for Tyler to do the same.

"No big spring break plans?" Tyler asked after he put down his menu.

"Not this year," Kelsey said. "I think Courtney and I are going to go shopping in Albany on Friday, but that's it." She shrugged. "Courtney wanted to stay here with Jason, Brie and Kevin went to Vermont for a romantic getaway, and Sarah went to visit some of her high school friends in the City. We're all graduating this year, and it would have been fun to do a group vacation like last year, but it just didn't work out."

"Where'd you go last year?" Tyler asked.

"Montreal. Brie and Kevin thought it would be fun, so we got a whole group to go."

"My family's from there," Tyler said.

"Really?"

Tyler nodded. "Yeah, my parents grew up there. They moved to Ontario before I was born, but a lot of our family still lives there."

"Is that where your grandma lives?" Kelsey asked.

Tyler smiled a little. "Yeah, both sets of grandparents."

Their waitress interrupted them to list the specials and then, when that didn't make either of them change their minds, write down their orders of burgers and beers.

"You're graduating this year," Tyler said when the waitress was gone. "Do you know what you're going to do after that?"

Kelsey made a face. "No. I guess I should start looking for jobs, but I don't really know if I want to stay here or go somewhere else or what." She didn't know if he knew anything about what Courtney was thinking about, and plans for after graduation wasn't really a topic she wanted to talk that much about anyway. "I heard you're leaving at the end of this year too."

"Yeah," Tyler said with a sigh. "The Phantoms are moving next year. I'm RFA this summer." Something of how meaningless that was to her must have shown on Kelsey's face because he said, "Restricted free agent. It means if anyone else makes me an offer and the Flyers match it, I have to take the Flyers' offer. I want to stay with them, but," he shrugged, "my stats aren't great this year, and they might not re-sign me."

The waitress came by to put a beer down in front of each of them. Kelsey and Tyler both thanked her, and Kelsey picked up her beer.

"What would that mean?"

"I'd play somewhere else," Tyler said. He sipped his beer. "All I want to do is play hockey, so that part would still be good, but I like this team and these guys."

Kelsey wasn't quite sure what to say to that, so she said the only thing that could really apply to both of their situations. "Change is hard."

"Yep." Tyler made a face. "Sorry to bring things down. That isn't really the fun I was suggesting."

Kelsey laughed. "I guess it's better to know we're not alone in not knowing what we're going to do next year."

Tyler smiled at her, one of his barely there smiles that required attention to notice. "Yeah, that's better."

Kelsey met his eyes, and they just looked at each other for too long while their smiles dropped away. Neither one of them was alone in how they felt, not at all, and they kept finding themselves right back in the middle of that togetherness.

Tyler looked away first.

Kelsey hadn't quite regathered herself when Tyler asked her about her trip to Montreal last year, but she shook it off and told him one of the stories their group liked to retell about that trip, and then asked him about his travels.

Exchanging travel stories took them all the way through until the waitress brought their meals, and then the food occupied their attention.

Kelsey finished her burger but not her fries. Tyler was being subtle about it, but she could see him eying them, so she pushed her plate toward him. "You want the rest of them?"

Tyler looked guilty at that. "You sure?"

Kelsey smiled at him. "Yeah. Go for it." She sipped the end of her beer while she watched him eat the rest of her fries, dipping every third one in ketchup.

They declined dessert when the waitress came by to take their empty plates and ask them about it, but they lingered even after Tyler had handed over his card and gotten it back. They weren't talking about anything important, but Kelsey was enjoying herself, the warmth of holding Tyler's attention, of laughing and making him laugh, just as good as any spring break vacation.

Only after their waitress came by for the third time to see if they wanted their water glasses refilled did Tyler look around them and say, "I guess we should go." He sounded as reluctant about it as Kelsey felt. But it was getting later, and the place was emptying out.

"Yeah, I guess," Kelsey said.

They pulled on their coats and smiled at the waitress on the way out of the restaurant. It had cooled down outside, and Kelsey pulled the collar of her coat up against her neck.

"Where's your car?" Tyler asked. "I'll walk you back."

"In the lot," Kelsey said, "this way."

Tyler stayed close on the walk, close enough that Kelsey could have hooked her arm through his or reached for his hand. It took more effort than she would have thought to keep from doing either of those things. Tyler didn't push that, but he did rest his hand at the small of her back when they had to walk closer to let other people pass them on the sidewalk.

Kelsey dug her keys out of her purse and clicked the button to unlock her car as they crossed the parking lot toward it. She stopped when they got to the door and turned to look at Tyler. She'd parked under a streetlight that threw the angles of his face into relief, left enough light for her to see his eyes meeting hers.

"Thank you for dinner," she said.

Tyler smiled at her. "Thanks for coming with me." They just smiled at each other for a long moment before Tyler leaned in, slowly enough for her to gauge his intentions and move away if she wanted to, and kissed her. It was a soft, sweet kiss, no urgency or hurry in it.

Kelsey let her arms come up and wrap around Tyler, settling in against him as he put his arms around her and kept kissing her with the same slow sweetness.

Kelsey leaned against Tyler when they stopped kissing, resting her forehead on his chest and feeling warm and safe in his arms.

She could invite him home, and she thought about doing just that as she stood there in the circle of his arms. But it hadn't really been that kind of evening. It had been more like a first date than anything else.

Tyler let her go easily when she stepped away, and he reached past her to open her car door for her.

"Thank you," she said again. "I'll see you around."

Tyler smiled a little. "Yeah," he said, "I'm sure." He closed her door once she was in the car. He stepped away from the car, but stayed, watching, until she drove away.

Kelsey took that warm feeling of being cared about all the way home with her.

*

Going out on a Wednesday night was Kevin's idea, or at least Kevin was the one who brought it to the rest of them; Kelsey had the vague impression it might have started as a plan somewhere in the farther reaches of their social circle.

Whatever the original reason, it had swelled into a large number of people, and it took a while for Kelsey and Courtney to make their way around the bar, saying hi to their various friends from school and also to the members of Jason's team who'd come along.

They got drinks at the bar, and then settled in around the central table, a few bar stools for people to sit on but most of them standing, Courtney sliding into the space next to Jason.

They hadn't been there very long when Tyler slipped into the space next to Kelsey.

"Hi," he said, one of those soft, barely there smiles on his face.

"Hi." Kelsey smiled up at him. It had been a month since they had dinner over spring break. That stretch of time hadn't done anything to dim the way she felt about him. She wanted to curl up against him, or drag him out of there and home to her bed. She didn't do either of those things, just smiled and turned back to the conversation.

Tyler didn't do anything overt, like put his arm around her the way Jason had his arm around Courtney, but he stayed close, exchanged smiles with Kelsey when the conversation hit on something they'd talked about before. It felt like they were together, and she let herself feel his warmth at her side and the certainty that they would be leaving together later.

The noise level in the bar had been rising steadily, and Kelsey was so focused on their group at the table that it was only when someone at the edge of their table yelled, "David!" that she noticed the cause of some of the noise.

There was David, beer bottle held casually in one hand as he hugged people with the other arm, making his way around the table.

Courtney shot Kelsey a glance, and Kelsey just shrugged at her, letting Courtney hug David and introduce Jason.

David eventually got to her, and Kelsey stepped back half a step so he wouldn't try to hug her. She had the space for it because, without her even noticing, Tyler had shifted away from her, making space between them.

"Hi, Kel," David said, using the nickname only he had ever called her and that he didn't have a right to use anymore. "You look good."

"You too," Kelsey said, and objectively it was true. He was still the grown-up version of the guy she fell in love with, and he still had the smile she'd always liked, the dimple in one cheek. But she didn't feel the same way about him, had no urge to get closer to him or even, really, to talk to him.

David asked her about school, and about the shop, and she gave him short, bland answers until he moved on to talk to someone else.

While they'd been talking, Tyler had left the table altogether. Kelsey stuck it out a while longer, half participating in conversations that revolved mostly around catching David up on what he'd missed since he'd moved to the City, but it wasn't what she wanted to be doing. It wasn't who she wanted to be spending time with.

Courtney kept silently checking on her, but no one else was paying much attention to Kelsey, and it was easy enough for her to tell Courtney she was leaving and slip away from the table. The bar had gotten much more crowded since they got there, but Kelsey looked around for the tallest group of guys in there and made her way toward them. She'd chosen correctly; Tyler was there with Cal and a couple of their other teammates, beers in hand as they talked.

Cal noticed her first, and nodded at Tyler, who turned and then took a few steps away from the group to meet her.

Kelsey looked up at him, meeting his eyes and the cautious warmth there. It was like the noise and the crowd of the bar all dropped away and left just the two of them in a bubble of space. "Give me a ride home?"

She didn't think she was misreading his surprise, and she let him just look at her for a moment.

"You sure?"

Kelsey nodded, absolutely and completely sure that what she wanted was to go home with Tyler.

"Okay." Tyler found a place to put his beer bottle down, and then he led her out of the bar with a hand at the small of her back.

His truck was familiar to her by now, and he helped her up into it with an ease that showed off just how strong he was.

Kelsey watched him as he drove, as best she could in the light that filtered in from the streetlights they passed. She felt calm, settled, certain about what she was doing, even more so than the first time he'd driven her home.

Tyler followed her into the building, up the stairs, into her apartment, a comforting presence at her back. They stopped inside the door, and Tyler bent down to untie his shoes while Kelsey lifted each foot up and undid the buckles on her shoes one-handed. She stepped out of her shoes and onto the floor with a sigh - they looked good, but she was glad to be out of them.

Tyler was so much taller than her when they were barefoot. She had to look up and up to meet his gaze. He smiled at her, cupped her cheek in one hand, and bent to kiss her.

Kelsey smiled into it and looped her arms around his shoulders.

They kissed slowly, gently for a long time before Tyler stopped kissing her, one hand still on her cheek, the other lightly running up and down her back. "Bedroom?"

Kelsey nodded and leaned up to kiss him lightly. When she slipped out of his hold, his hand slid across her back and he caught her hand in his.

Kelsey laced her fingers with his, the solid connection tethering her to the ground, and led him into her bedroom.

Kelsey turned on the light, and Tyler pushed the door shut, and then they were closed in together, the light shining brightly on both of them, and Kelsey's heart felt full to bursting with how much she wanted him.

She turned her back to him, swept her hair over one shoulder, and dipped her head. He took the hint without her having to ask, and one of his large hands rested on her shoulder while he unzipped her dress with the other.

There was a rush of cool air as her dress parted, and then more when Tyler pushed it off her shoulders. Kelsey shook her arms out of it, pushed it down over her hips. She was still standing inside the circle of her dress at her feet when she turned around.

Tyler's eyes skimmed down her body, and back up, and then he put one arm around her and kissed her while he pulled her close. Everything had a slow, hazy quality to it, and Kelsey relaxed into it, relaxed into his kiss, relaxed into letting the heat between them build slowly.

She put her arms around Tyler and pushed her hands up under his shirt, feeling for the solid warmth of skin and muscle below it. They kissed for a while longer before Tyler stopped touching her long enough to pull his shirt over his head and toss it to the side. There was more skin for her to touch then, and Kelsey put one hand on his chest while she wrapped the other arm around him.

When Kelsey's neck started to get sore from the angle she had to hold herself at to keep kissing him, she stopped kissing him, letting her head drop a little. "Come to bed," she said. She waited a moment for Tyler to let go of her, his hands sliding along her skin and away.

Kelsey took off her bra and panties, too focused on that to watch Tyler take off his pants and boxer briefs. She got into bed and reached for Tyler when he came to join her. He laid down next to her, and she turned on her side to face him.

"You're beautiful," Tyler said, and he leaned in to kiss her gently while he ran his hands over her body. He cupped her breasts, let a hand rest on her hip for a moment, lightly ran his fingers over the dip of her waist, trailing heat and desire over her skin.

Kelsey let her hands roam as well, over the tight muscles of his abs, the sharp line of his collarbone, the lines of his back. It was April and his season was drawing to a close. He was leaving, and it might be her last chance to see him. She wanted to memorize everything about him, the way he looked, the way he felt, the way his nearness and warmth made her wet.

Tyler's cock was hard between them, and Kelsey reached down to stroke it gently, feel the heat and strength there.

Tyler groaned, kissed her, and slipped his hand between her legs. She was already wet, and he groaned again when his fingers dipped inside of her.

Kelsey shifted her legs apart, giving him more room to touch her. He trailed his fingers up and down, too light to make her come, but every touch sending shivers of feeling through her.

When he started to touch her with more intent, she let go of his cock and pushed his hand away. "No, wait," she said. "I want you in me."

"Kelsey," Tyler said, sounding strangled. He surged forward and kissed her, rolling her onto her back with the force of it, and reached across the bed to get a condom out of her nightstand.

Kelsey spread her legs and drew her knees up, making space for Tyler while he tore open the condom package. He paused, condom in his hand, and bent down to kiss her, equal mix of tenderness and heat in his kiss.

Kelsey took in a shuddery breath when he sat up again, and blinked back the urge to cry for how good it was.

Tyler paused, condom on, and ran his hand from her inner thigh up to her knee. "Okay?"

"Yeah," Kelsey said. She reached her arms out toward him. "Come on."

Tyler guided himself into her, hot and hard and perfect, and then he stretched out over her, where she could wrap her arms around him and bury her face in his shoulder. He whispered her name, and then he bent his head and kissed her temple. It was enough to make Kelsey stop hiding and kiss him instead.

Tyler stroked her side, hand traveling from the side of her breast to her hip. "Still good?"

Kelsey nodded. "Perfect." It was. He felt so good in her and over her, and she wanted to stay like that almost as much as she wanted him to move in her. She tipped her head up to kiss him again. "Please," she murmured against his lips.

Tyler kissed her again, deeply, hungrily, and then he started to move, soft thrusts that were more of a grind than anything else. It was just right, just what she needed from him.

Kelsey dug her fingers into Tyler's back, making sure he wouldn't go anywhere. It felt so good to have him in her, moving against her, kissing her. Every thrust caught her most sensitive spots in just the right way, and Kelsey just held on and kept kissing Tyler as much as she could between gasping breaths.

She was getting closer and closer, and then Tyler pulled away from her. She cried out in complaint and gripped his shoulders.

He nuzzled at her neck. "Shh. I'm gonna get you there." He reached between them, getting his hand on her just where she needed to be touched before he got close again, his hand between them making it even better. Every slow, grinding thrust pushed them together, making Kelsey feel so good, sparks running through her body, her orgasm getting closer and closer.

He was going to make her come like that, she could feel it, and she clung to him, wanting him to be right there with her. She gasped out his name, wanting him to know how much she wanted him there with her.

Tyler kissed her hard, and he was still kissing her when her pleasure crested into an orgasm that shook through her and made her cry out into his mouth. Tyler broke their kiss to let her breathe, and then he was kissing her again and again while he thrust into her until he came.

Kelsey held on to him all the way through it, and kissed him afterward, wanting to keep him close even though they'd both come. Tyler pulled away from her to deal with the condom, but he came right back to her, curling in close around her, the two of them exchanging soft, quiet kisses and Tyler seeming just as reluctant as she was to stop touching.

After a while, they weren't even kissing much anymore, just lying on their sides looking at each other. Tyler ran his fingers over her cheek, across her forehead, brushing her hair back. Kelsey had one hand resting on his side, not wanting to stop touching him. It was just as perfect as everything else had been, and she wanted to keep him there with a fierceness that was exactly what they'd said they weren't going to do.

"I should go," Tyler said after they'd been lying there for long enough that time had lost meaning.

The word "stay" was on the tip of Kelsey's tongue, but she swallowed it back and nodded.

Tyler kissed her, soft and sweet and too short, before he got out of bed. Kelsey watched him bend over to pick up his clothes off the floor, and then she stopped watching to get out of bed herself and pull on her robe.

When she turned around, Tyler was pulling something out of his wallet. He held up a piece of paper, and then put it down on her nightstand. "Our season ends next week, and we've got a pretty packed schedule, so this is probably the last time I'll see you." He nodded at the paper. "That's where I'll for most of the summer, if you're ever in Toronto." He met her eyes, his deep and blue and serious. "I know we're not, you know," he waved between them, "but in case you're ever in Toronto and you want," he finally dropped his gaze, "well, whatever."

Kelsey wanted to cry again, and she wanted to pull him back into her bed and keep him there, at least until the morning. She didn't do either of those things. She crossed the space between them, tipped her head up to his, and kissed him.

Tyler put his arms around her while they kissed, but he didn't linger, drawing away and letting his hand slide down her arm. He took her hand and laced their fingers together. "Walk me to the door?"

Kelsey nodded. "Of course," she said, not as lightly as she'd meant to.

Tyler squeezed her hand, and they walked together to the entryway. Tyler let go of her hand then, and bent to put on his shoes.

His eyes were serious and a little sad when he looked at her after that. Kelsey stepped forward, unable to resist anything about him, and wrapped her arms around him. She pressed her face to his chest, willing herself not to cry.

Tyler's arms came around her, and he held her just as tightly as she was holding him. He kissed the top of her head after a minute, and then tipped her face up to his and bent to kiss her. It was so sweet, and it was also goodbye, and Kelsey's heart hurt when he stopped and pulled away from her.

He left without saying anything else.

Kelsey let him go and locked the door behind him with shaking hands. She hadn't meant to feel the way she did about him, and it didn't matter because he was leaving, gone from her life now. That was cold comfort when she went back to her empty bed.

*

Kelsey didn't see Tyler again, and didn't even hear about him much. She saw Jason a few times, but he went to play in Philly - Kelsey watched him on TV with Courtney - and didn't mention Tyler, at least not to Kelsey.

Kelsey told herself sternly, and repeatedly, to stop thinking about Tyler, and she did her best to focus on the end of the semester.

Finals week was rough, having to take tests and turn in papers when she was so close to being done. Not that she had anything certain to move on to, but graduation would mark the end of this chapter in her life, and then maybe it would be easier to put Tyler behind her and move on.

It didn't work out quite as well as she hoped. It was easy enough to focus on graduation during graduation weekend, but she still didn't know what she was going to do next, and every time she tried to think about it, what she really thought about was Tyler. It didn't stop her from applying to jobs all over - Glens Falls, the City, Albany - but she didn't, admittedly, put her best effort into it.

The weekend after graduation, Brie and Sarah came over to Kelsey and Courtney's for a girls' night in, their last chance before Sarah left for her job in New York and Brie and Kevin went home for the summer before grad school in Vermont. Courtney was sticking around until September, when she would go wherever Jason was, which meant Kelsey didn't absolutely have to decide whether she was moving out of the apartment and where she would move to until the end of the summer.

Mostly girls' night meant wine, pizza, and whatever movie they could find on TV.

Kelsey got up at the end of the movie they were watching to put leftover pizza in the fridge and open another bottle of wine.

"Wait," Brie said after Kelsey had poured them each a new glass. "Let's toast." She held up her glass and the rest of them followed suit. "To us, and to four years of friendship. And to finding ways to do this again even when we're living far apart."

They all toasted to that, and Sarah flung her arms around Brie, just barely managing not to spill wine all over the carpet. "I can't believe we're all going to be apart."

Brie patted her arm and Courtney said, "You're leaving first."

"I know," Sarah said, "and it's freaking me out."

"You're going to be great," Kelsey said. "And you have a ton of friends there already."

"I know, I know," Sarah said. "It's still freaking me out." She let go of Brie so she could drink her wine. "What about you? Have you figured out what you're doing?"

"Nope." Kelsey downed half her glass of wine.

"Do you have any idea what you want?"

Kelsey started to answer her, but then her eyes filled with tears, and maybe she should have talked to Courtney about it earlier, or not had quite so much wine.

"Oh, shit," Sarah said, sitting up all the way. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad about it. It's okay if you don't know what you want to do!"

"It's not even that," Kelsey said, and then she was really crying enough that she had to put down her wine.

Courtney put her arms around her, and then Sarah was getting off the floor and sitting on the other side of her on the couch, the two of them hugging her between them. A minute later, Brie held out the Kleenex box, and Kelsey took one, even though it all just made her cry harder.

Kelsey tried to get herself back under control, to take some deep breaths and stop crying. She probably should be more worried about what she was going to do with her life, but it was her heart she couldn't stop thinking about.

It took a few minutes, but eventually she blew her nose and wiped her eyes.

"Here," Brie said, handing over a fully refilled wine glass. "Drink more."

"I don't think that's going to help," Kelsey said, but she drank anyway.

"You said it wasn't about what you want to do," Sarah said. "Are you going to tell us what it is about?"

Kelsey gulped down more of her wine. "Tyler," she finally said, and it felt so strange to say his name after so long since she'd last said it.

Courtney's arms tightened around her. "What did he do?"

Kelsey leaned into Courtney's hold. "Nothing," she said. "He's perfect." She sniffled and reached for another tissue out of the box. "I love him. I really tried not to, but I do, and he's gone." She looked at Sarah, "I do know what I want, but what I want is him."

Courtney and Sarah kept hugging her, but no one said anything for a minute.

"I didn't even know you knew him that well," Courtney said.

Kelsey shrugged a little. "We had dinner together a couple of times."

Courtney hmmed. "You didn't tell me that."

Kelsey squirmed out of the hug sandwich enough to get at the bottle of wine and refill her glass. "I didn't want it to be a thing. Neither of us did. We were just, you know, hooking up." She drank her wine. "I only hooked up with him the first time because he said he wasn't looking for anything."

"Wow," Sarah said. "That's usually more my thing."

"Yeah, but it just stays hookups for you," Kelsey said.

"What happened?" Brie asked. "That it didn't stay that way?"

Kelsey shook her head. "I don't even know. We just kept seeing each other, and we hooked up and talked, and it was all so _easy_." Her eyes teared up again, and she grabbed for a tissue. "Being with him was easy, and it was fun."

"How was the sex?" Sarah asked. "What?" she said in response to Brie's hissed, " _Sarah_." "That's important."

"It was good," Kelsey said. "He made me come every time, even the time I cried in the middle."

"You cried in the middle?" Courtney asked. "You didn't tell me that either."

"I know," Kelsey said. Courtney didn't sound that hurt, but they were supposed to be best friends, and Kelsey had told her all kinds of things before Tyler. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to make it real by talking about it. I was just trying not to think about it." She outlined the time she cried for them, told them about being upset because it would have been her and David's anniversary, about Tyler telling her about his own heartbreak. She didn't tell them the details of what Tyler had told her; that wasn't her story to share.

"Wow, yeah," Brie said when she was done. "He sounds great."

"He is great," Kelsey said miserably. "And he's gone and not coming back to Glens Falls."

"Is it just you?" Brie asked. "This whole feelings even though you were just hooking up thing?"

"I don't think so," Kelsey said. "I don't think I could have felt that close to him if it hadn't been, and he seemed sad to leave. He left me his address for the summer."

"So how much do you want him?" Sarah asked. "Enough to go see him? Enough to go with him to Allentown next year?"

It wasn't rational. It didn't make any kind of sense in terms of figuring out what she was going to do with her life after college. It probably wasn't smart. But when Sarah asked her that, all Kelsey felt was a longing deeper than she'd ever felt for any of the jobs she'd applied for or any of the places she'd thought about moving.

Kelsey nodded. "Yes," she said. "It doesn't make any sense, but yes."

"I think you should go," Sarah declared.

"Really?" Courtney asked from the other side of Kelsey. "You're all about hookups."

"For me," Sarah said. "But I like knowing romance is alive out there. You don't think she should go?"

"I think she should do whatever she wants," Courtney said. She looked at Kelsey. "I do. And if you want to be with Tyler, then you should at least try. I'll probably be in Allentown next year, so it's not like you wouldn't know anyone."

It was a relief to have them support her, to validate that she wasn't insane for wanting to upend her whole life for a guy.

"What do you think?" Kelsey asked Brie.

"I think you need to do whatever's going to make you happy," Brie said. "If that's going after Tyler, then go after Tyler."

Kelsey drank the end of her wine and refilled her glass. "I want to," she said. "I think it'll make me happy. If he wants me too."

"He'd be an idiot not to," Courtney said, and she wrapped her arm around Kelsey's shoulders. "We'll still be here for you no matter what happens."

*

Kelsey was already on the schedule to work, so she asked Mary Anne for time off and waited for her to do the next round of schedules and give her a few days off.

Courtney had offered to get Tyler's phone number from Jason for her, but Kelsey had turned that down.

"I think I need to go," she'd told Courtney. "I need to see him in person and make sure it's real for both of us and not just about, you know, panicking about life." She'd said it with a little bit of a smile, but she didn't think that was going to be the result, not for her, at least.

Courtney hugged her goodbye the night before she left, saying, "Good luck. Tell me how it goes."

"I will," Kelsey promised, and she hugged Courtney tightly.

Despite her words to Courtney, Kelsey wasn't sure about what she was doing. She had doubts when she got into the car early in the morning, doubts when she stopped in Utica for a snack, doubts as she showed her passport at the border into Canada. But there was certainty there too, certainty that Tyler was what she wanted and that at least she would never have to live with the what ifs that would come from never following through on that.

The address Tyler had given her was a very large building a sea of similarly large buildings. Kelsey followed the directions on the slip of paper she'd kept safe ever since he left it for her and found the parking garage. Tyler had left a code on the slip of paper too, and Kelsey had a moment of worry that it wouldn't get her into the garage, but it let her in, and she carefully navigated to a visitor's spot.

It took her a minute before she felt ready to get out of the car, and that was on top of the minute she spent brushing her hair and reapplying her lip gloss. It was possible that what she was doing was completely stupid and was going to be an awful, humiliating disaster. But it could also be the best thing she'd ever done in her life, and it was that hope that propelled her out of the car and into the elevator.

If she hadn't figured out from the outside that it was a really nice building, the immaculate, well-kept elevator and hallway would have clued her in.

Kelsey found the door with the apartment number Tyler had given her, and she stood looking at the number for a moment, taking a few deep breaths before she rang the buzzer.

A guy answered the door, but it wasn't Tyler, some other guy, good looking enough, big like Tyler's teammates, tattoos all down both arms.

"Can I help you?" the guy asked.

"Um, hi," Kelsey said. "Tyler said I could come by if I was ever in the area." Probably better not to tell a total stranger she'd driven six and a half hours just to drop in.

The guy raised his eyebrows kind of skeptically, but seemed to decide she wasn't a threat and opened the door wider, nudging a large dog out of the way.

"Marshall, no," he said to the dog.

It was probably stupider than any of the other decisions she'd made, but Kelsey went into the apartment, and followed the guy across the large room the door opened onto.

"It's a girl," the guy said. "She says Tyler said she could come by."

There were other guys in the apartment, two of them sitting at a counter between the open room and the kitchen, and two more in the kitchen, all of them looking at her now. Kelsey ignored most of them, the guys at the counter and the one in the kitchen saying something that started with, "I don't remember," because the other guy in the kitchen was Tyler.

Seeing him brushed away any last doubts Kelsey had about what she wanted. She could feel herself reacting to him already, without him even having said anything, the thrum of want in her veins and the way she wanted to reach out and touch, that connection she'd always felt with him in spite of herself.

"Kelsey," Tyler said, and the other guy in the kitchen stopped talking.

"Hi," Kelsey said. She managed a smile, but she knew it probably looked as uncertain as she felt. What she wanted was only half of what she needed to know.

Tyler seemed as frozen in place as she was. "What are you doing here?"

Kelsey lifted one shoulder in a shrug more casual than how she felt. "I wanted to see you." She met his eyes across the room, that deep blue that met hers with an almost electric shock.

There was a long, breathless moment, and then Tyler came around the counter. He stopped right in front of her, and smiled at her, one of those soft, real smiles. "Hi."

Kelsey smiled up at him, happiness bursting in her chest. "Hi." She leaned up while Tyler bent down, and it was one of the softest, most perfect kisses she'd ever had. And it meant he felt for her at least some of what she felt for him. Kelsey's eyes prickled with tears of relief.

Even after they stopped kissing, Tyler kept his arms wrapped around her, and Kelsey turned her face into his chest, soaking up the comfort of his familiar warmth.

"So, uh, are you going to introduce us?" one of the other guys asked.

Kelsey and Tyler turned away from each other enough to face the other guys. Tyler kept one arm around her, and she leaned against his side while he introduced her to his friends.

The guy who'd answered the door was Jesse, the other one in the kitchen was another Tyler - "You can call me Segs," he said - and the two guys at the counter were Fred and Brendan.

"Lunch is almost ready," Segs said, "if you're staying."

Kelsey glanced up at Tyler for confirmation before she agreed.

"We can sit at the table," Segs said, and he pulled plates out of cabinets and gave them to Jesse to set the table.

"Why me?" Jesse elbowed Fred on his way to the table, a giant, wooden thing set off from the kitchen.

"Because you're already standing," Segs said. He grinned across the counter at Kelsey, or maybe at Tyler, and made Fred and Brendan get up and get everyone drinks.

They settled around the table, and it wasn't that different from hanging out with a bunch of her friends, or hanging out with Tyler and Jason and their teammates. There was some hockey talk Kelsey didn't quite follow, and a lot more general talk she did.

Tyler's friends asked a few questions about her, getting to know her without being too nosy about it. She asked a few questions of her own; if she and Tyler were going to be a part of each other's lives, his friends would also be part of her life. Segs seemed to know a little bit about her, but it was obvious from their questions that the others hadn't even heard of her.

And through it all, there was Tyler, smiling softly at her, listening to what she said, putting his arm across the back of her chair when they were done eating but still sitting around the table.

Segs waved off Tyler and Kelsey's offer to help clean up. "We've got it."

"What do you mean we?" Brendan asked.

" _We_ 've got it," Segs said. "You two catch up."

Tyler threw him a thankful look, and then turned to Kelsey. "Want to take a walk? Marshall probably needs to go out."

Kelsey said, "Sure," calmly, but it made her heart beat faster, their chance to talk with some privacy, or at least without Tyler's friends listening to every word.

Tyler got Marshall's leash and Kelsey grabbed her purse, and then Tyler held the door open and they walked out into the hallway together, the dog bounding ahead of them.

"How long are you in Toronto?" Tyler asked her while they were waiting for the elevator.

"Um," Kelsey said. "I have three days off." She stepped into the elevator ahead of him. "I drove up to see you." She didn't turn around until after she'd said that.

Tyler had followed her into the elevator, but he was just staring at her.

Kelsey reached past him and hit the button for the lobby, and Tyler caught her close with one hand on her shoulder.

"You really came up just to see me?" he asked, like he couldn't believe it.

"Yeah," Kelsey said. "Yes." She risked looking up to meet his eyes, and the warmth there made her glad she did.

Tyler bent down and kissed her, warm and sweet, and too short because he stopped when the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

Marshall bounded out first, with Tyler taking Kelsey's hand as they followed him out. Tyler pushed the door open for the three of them, and they stepped out into the sunshine.

"I'm glad you're here," Tyler said. He smiled at her before he unhooked the sunglasses from the collar of his shirt and put them on.

Kelsey smiled back at him and squeezed his hand.

They let Marshall lead them, pausing when he paused to sniff at whatever smells there might be for a dog to investigate.

"How was graduation?" Tyler asked while they waited for Marshall to sniff at a doorway.

"It was good," Kelsey said. "Everyone's parents came for it, and all of Courtney's siblings, so it was pretty busy. But we all graduated."

"That's the important part," Tyler said. They moved on when Marshall was ready to pull them farther down the block. "That's actually really great. Most of my friends haven't graduated from college."

"They're doing other things," Kelsey said with a shrug, "but, yeah, being a college graduate is pretty cool. How's your summer?"

"Oh, pretty good," Tyler said. "Went home to see my family and my dog, spent some time on the lake. We haven't started doing hardcore training yet, so mostly taking it easy."

They walked slowly, ambling along and holding hands, while Tyler told her about his dog and the summer so far and she told him the stories from graduation. They didn't talk about the future. Kelsey couldn't know what Tyler was thinking about that, but she held off because it seemed like a conversation to have in private.

When they looped back around to Tyler's building, he asked, "Do you have a suitcase or something? I mean, if you want to stay with me."

"Yes," Kelsey said. "I do and I want to. It's in the car."

They took the elevator down instead of up and Kelsey fished her keys out of her purse while they walked to her car.

"I'll get it," Tyler said, and he handed her Marshall's leash. "Here. He's pretty well-behaved."

Kelsey's bag wasn't very heavy, but she still appreciated the flex of Tyler's muscles as he lifted it up and shut the trunk.

When he caught her looking, she shrugged unapologetically and leaned in to kiss the strong line of muscle in his arm. "I like looking at you."

A dull flush stole up Tyler's cheeks, and he leaned down to kiss her. It wasn't one of the soft, sweet kisses. It was one of the heated ones that made Kelsey's knees weak enough that she clung tightly to Tyler. Only the tug of Marshall pulling against the leash she still held pried one of her hands away from Tyler.

"Marshall," Tyler said, firm warning in his voice. Then he looked at Kelsey with heat and affection both. "Walk me home?"

Kelsey put her free hand on his cheek and pressed a swift kiss to his lips. "Yes."

They stood close in the elevator on the way up, Tyler's arm around Kelsey's shoulders while she leaned against him, drinking in his warmth and the way he made her feel.

Tyler's friends were spread out over the large couch when they got back to the apartment. Tyler set down Kelsey's bag to bend over and unclip Marshall's leash.

"My room's upstairs," he said after that, and Kelsey started up the stairs without looking to see what kind of looks his friends were giving them.

There were a doors at the top of the stairs, and Tyler put a hand at the small of her back to guide her toward one of them. It opened onto a bedroom that she didn't pay much attention to because as soon as Tyler closed the door behind them and set down her bag, she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.

Tyler put his arms around her, holding her tight against his body while he kissed her deeply. Kelsey clung to him, anchoring herself against the flood of heat and want that swept through her.

It wasn't enough after a moment, and Kelsey got her hands on the hem of Tyler's shirt, tugging it up until he took over and pulled it off. In the moment they were apart for him to do that, she pulled her shirt off as well. He watched her, his gaze as palpable as a touch, while she reached behind herself and unhooked her bra, then slid the straps down her arms and tossed it to the side.

They crashed together again, skin on skin and Kelsey feeling like she couldn't get enough of him.

He pulled her forward by her hips, one of his thighs slotting between hers, and she gasped at the friction, at how she felt like she was burning up with wanting him and the certain knowledge that he wanted her too.

She broke away from his kiss to gasp out, "Bed, take me to bed."

Tyler picked her up, hands sure and firm on her ass. Kelsey pressed her mouth against his neck, wanting to feel him like that too but careful not to distract him too much while he carried her over to the bed.

He set her down gently, and he looked at her, his eyes hot and her skin tingling with the force of his gaze, as he unbuttoned his shorts.

Kelsey unbuttoned her jeans by feel, not looking away from him while they both got the rest of their clothes off. He looked just as good naked as she remembered him looking, strong muscles and hard cock.

He didn't waste any time joining her once they were naked. His bed was small, smaller than either of theirs in Glens Falls, and he settled between her legs when she spread them to make space for him.

He hovered there, so close she could feel the heat radiating off of him, for a moment that seemed suspended in time. They were looking straight into each other's eyes, serious and breathless, and then Tyler smiled at her, and she smiled right back at him and laughed with joy as he settled himself on top of her and kissed her.

Her laughter faded away quickly, replaced by the heat he was stoking in her body with every kiss and every touch. She didn't need much of that, glad to be touching him but already so wet and turned on that she just wanted him in her.

She squeezed his arm. "Condom?"

"Uh, yeah." He looked at her, eyes glazed over with lust, before he reached over and rummaged through the nightstand. It took him a moment to come up with a condom, and it didn't have to mean anything, but it might have meant he hadn't been with anyone else. Every bit of Kelsey hoped it was that, and then he was pulling away from her enough to roll on the condom, and she stopped caring about anything but getting him in her.

Kelsey let out a moan as he slid into her. It was so perfect, just what she wanted, Tyler's cock filling her up just right, his body against hers, their mouths meeting in a careful, slow kiss before he started to move.

He hadn't forgotten what she liked, and his hips made small, grinding movements that ratcheted up her pleasure. She kissed him while he did, and grabbed at him, one hand across his back, the other on his gorgeous ass, both hands keeping him close, not that he was trying to go anywhere.

He murmured her name against her neck, and then he got one of his hands between them, touching her in a way that sent sharper sparks of pleasure through her.

"Tyler," Kelsey gasped out.

He smiled at her, so much affection on his face that she went completely breathless for a moment. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah," and the words didn't actually mean anything, but they sounded like a promise and an affirmation, and he was following through on it, touching her and kissing her and making her feel so cared about and taken care of that it all melded into a pleasure that suffused everything she was, body, mind, and soul.

It couldn't last, she couldn't hold that much feeling forever, but it built and built before it starburst out into what might have been the best orgasm of her life.

There were aftershocks, smaller sparks, as Tyler kept moving in her, and she pressed her lips to his cheek, keeping that contact too until he threw his head back as he came.

They kissed sloppy and off-center after that, breathing hard into each other's mouths until Tyler had to pull out of her and take care of the condom.

His bed was small enough that they had no choice but to cuddle close together when Tyler rejoined her in it. Kelsey didn't mind that in the slightest, and she reveled in the feeling of Tyler's legs tangled with hers and the knowledge that neither of them had to leave the bed.

Tyler draped his arm over her waist, occasionally sweeping it up and down her side. Kelsey rested her hand on his chest, feeling the muscle there and the rise and fall of his breath.

They made out for a while, slow and easy, taking breaks to just look into each other's eyes. For all that what she felt was strong, it was all so easy, just like almost everything else with him had been.

That was what made Kelsey brave enough, in one of the pauses between kisses, to tell Tyler the full truth of why she'd come to see him, but not brave enough to watch his face while she did. She kept her eyes focused on the way her hand looked so small against his chest when she said, "I love you." Her voice only shook a little. "I know that wasn't what we said we were doing and I tried not to, but I do."

He said her name so softly she almost didn't hear it, and he tipped her chin up so she had no choice but to look at him. He wasn't smiling outright, but she knew him well enough to see the happy softness around his eyes.

"Yes," he said. "Me too."

Kelsey had hoped for that, but she hadn't been sure, and the certain knowledge of it burst into the kind of happiness she wasn't sure she could fully contain. She surged forward and kissed him, smiling into it, and laughing when he tightened both arms around her.

"What about next year?" Tyler asked after a little while, that softness still around his eyes but a more serious set to his mouth.

"I don't have any plans for my life now," Kelsey said, no reason to hold back any of the truth anymore. "The only thing I could think of that I knew I wanted for sure was to be with you. I'll move with you."

Tyler ran his thumb across her cheekbone. "You know I might not be in Allentown. I don't have a contract yet. I might end up somewhere else, maybe even in Canada."

"I know." Kelsey met his eyes straight on, no holding back anything anymore. "I'll go with you, wherever you're going." Then she said, because she knew his history and her own, "But I don't think we should live together right away. We should take that part slow."

Tyler nodded and stroked her hair, kissed her softly. "I think that's a good idea."

Kelsey smiled at him, the last of the tension lifting off of her shoulders. "Okay," she said, "okay." She kissed him lightly. "That's what we'll do then."

"Okay," Tyler agreed. He gave her a smile that was almost a smirk. "And you should give me your number."

Kelsey laughed and kissed him. "I will," she promised.

*

**Epilogue**

"Hi," Kelsey called out as she let herself into Tyler and Cal's townhouse.

"Hey," Cal said, waving at her from the couch.

Tyler's greeting was accompanied with more of a smile, and he came out of the kitchen to kiss her hello. They stood together for an extra minute, arms wrapped around each other, and Kelsey leaning against the solid bulk of Tyler's chest.

"How was your day?" Tyler asked when they separated.

"Good." Kelsey followed him toward the kitchen and settled herself onto one of the stools on the other side of the counter. "I got assigned to a team today."

"Yeah? That's good, right?"

"Yep. It means they want to keep me and think I'm going to stay." The first few weeks of her job at the consulting firm had been more of an orientation than anything else, learning the business and the way they dealt with clients. It was also, she thought, something of a tryout. While she hadn't witnessed it herself yet, she'd started to hear rumors and stories about people not lasting long enough to get assigned to a team.

"That's great," Tyler said, and he smiled across the counter at her before he turned to the stove.

"How was your day?"

Tyler shrugged one shoulder. "Good. Same as most of them. Practice and workouts. I got a couple shots past Cal in practice." The last was said loudly enough to carry out to Cal in the living room.

"It was two," Cal shouted back. "And you got Konan and Oliver to screen for you."

Tyler threw a grin over his shoulder at Kelsey. "Still counts."

Kelsey laughed, and let the familiar rhythm of their chirping wash over her. It was good to come over to their place after work and feel like she belonged there, like it was becoming her home as much as her apartment was.

When dinner was almost ready, Kelsey got out plates and set the table. That, too, felt like belonging, and so did sitting down for dinner with Tyler and Cal, like they did most nights the two of them were in town.

They hung out at the table, still laughing and talking, for a while after dinner, until the looks Tyler was shooting at Kelsey started taking on a heated cast that made her want to drag him to bed.

Cal noticed them looking at each other after a while, and he rolled his eyes as he got up, taking all three of their plates with them. "I'll clean up," he said.

Tyler acknowledged that with a nod, and then said to Kelsey, "Give me three minutes, and then come upstairs."

"Three minutes?" Kelsey asked.

Tyler smiled at her. "Three minutes." He kissed the top of her head on his way toward the stairs.

"I don't know what he's planning," Cal said when he came to take the serving dishes, "but I'll probably sleep down here on the couch tonight."

Kelsey laughed a little and got up from the table so Cal wouldn't see the way her cheeks were heating up. She took her purse into the downstairs bathroom, where she reapplied her lip gloss and took her hair down from the chignon she'd had it in for work. She judged it had been about three minutes when she was done brushing her hair out, and she left her purse by the door, not even taking her phone with her, and went upstairs.

She pushed open the door to Tyler's room and stepped inside, and then stopped, looking around her. There were lit candles on every flat surface, all of them safely contained in candle holders or on plates, none of them too close to the bed or the curtains.

"Tyler," Kelsey breathed, and she looked up at him, the way he was looking at her as lovingly as he ever had, the way the candlelight cast his jaw into sharp relief. "What?"

He took a step toward her, hands coming down to settle on her hips. "It's our anniversary," he said. "Sort of. We met a year ago today."

Kelsey huffed out a laugh. "How do you know that? I don't even know that."

Tyler smiled at her, his thumbs rubbing up under the edge of her blouse. "I had to ask Jason and look at a game schedule for last season."

Kelsey laughed again, amused by the dedication it had taken for him to figure it out and also just plain happy. "Happy anniversary then," she said.

"Happy anniversary." Tyler bent down and kissed her, and she could feel the lightning spark of it race through her, just like that first time in his truck. "Hey," he murmured after a moment, "I bet I can make you come first this time."

Kelsey burst into laughter again, and it didn't settle even when he lifted her up to carry her to bed. "I bet you can."


End file.
